Auckland Championships - Orienteering!

On Tuesday the 15th May 2012 we had the Auckland Orienteering Championships on a farm near Patamahoe.

We left on a very large bus from the school at 11:00 and arrived on the Reeves Farm at about 11:40. Looking at the weather it was obvious that it was going to be a rather challenging field day. Mr Fourie entered the the 3 teams (Year 7 Boys, Year 8 Girls and Year 8 Boys). At this stage we already had to find shelter from the rain.

Soon after that we could have a look at what the area looked like. This made it even more daunting as no one has ever been onto this piece of land. It was totally unfamiliar. We had an idea where to start and knew where to finish, but everything in between was a mystery. And of course - there was the rain - again!

Soon we where doing the course. Anything from potholes, cow droppings (It was a dairy farm) trees and thorn bushes (Ask Jacob) were obstacles to make it more exciting. We had to maneuver our way around the 2.5km course as fast as we could and make the scheduled stops at the control points. We had to punch our maps at 14 different controls and run as fast as we could in between. At this stage the rain was quite nice, it cooled us down.

I no time the race was over and we felt great. We finished the course and some of our students completed the course in excellent times. As a bonus all our teams were able to hand in a result. So we took some time to wash our shoes and ourselves in a cow troth.

It was a great opportunity to compete against the very best orienteerders in Auckland. A special word of thanks to Val and John Robinson for organising this big event.