No surprise to wake up to more drizzle, although at one point a stray sunbeam fell across our door.  It was fleeting – Ilze was in the loo and missed it entirely.  So we shoved raincoats and spare socks into our backpacks and resigned ourselves to another evening of washing and drying clothes.

The organisers had really talked up stage 5, Hikanui, with hillclimb leg gradients of 1 in 3 (see leg 11-12) and all sorts of dire warnings.  We were hoping it was all a big joke, but one look at the finish chute told us otherwise.  The chute rose almost vertically – and was designated as a sprint leg!  Orienteers gathered at the top, peering glumly down in disbelief.  United in our fate, we wished each other luck as we headed to the start.

Today’s mixup was no control descriptions for our course.  The best we could do was write down the control numbers on the back of a piece of paper, and hope that whoever noted them first and passed them around, got it right!

The first few legs were quite benign, as we undulated along a gentle forest track and picked off controls as we went.  I was even enjoying myself and wondering what all the fuss was about. Then we got into the middle section, which featured a long spur with a very steep dropoff to either side.  There were plenty of tracks to use to get up and down, but with all the rain, they were slippery.  The hillclimb leg with the 1 in 3 gradient required a hands and knees crawl up a slope covered in long grass, but was really just a big grunt.  Clambering over numerous fences was almost more effort.  We had a nice downhill run for the final couple of legs, before the dreaded finish chute.  As I clawed my way up it, Ilze helpfully called out “don’t slide backwards!”  Not words you need to hear as you are supposedly sprinting for the line!

Afterwards we had a “who has the dirtiest bum” contest. We thought Ilze was a clear winner till we saw Anne’s backside…

A retreat to the apartment seemed in order, as we had about 2 hours till race 6.  It’s been very civilised driving only 5-10 minutes to get to the events, and being able to change our muddy socks and have lunch indoors where it’s warm and dry.  The sun was teasing us by threatening to appear, but so far it hasn’t quite managed it.

Race 6, Kopanga Ride, was from the same event centre, with a different start.  We were hoping for a new finish chute, but no such luck. We were in for another stiff climb to finish the race, and the competition.

Relieved to have control descriptions this time, we had a longish uphill run out of the start into a private girls school.  It was a little familiar, as we raced there in 2011, and I knew how to negotiate the multiple levels and terraces.  The first 7 controls were still hard, mainly in terms of following the right red lines and making sure you went to all the controls in the right order.  After no 8 we had the sprint leg – and what a leg!  Check 8-9 on the map above.  It took a while to decide how to tackle it, and I reckon it was about 800 m long.  Luckily much of it was downhill, then we cut along the edge of a small cemetery and down across a stream.

Next we found ourselves in the middle of a miniature railway line, which I found quite confusing.  From there it was another very long leg to get to the final two controls.  By the end of my 2 km run that turned out to be 4 km, I was stuffed.  It was all I could do to get up that last pinch – but I finished, and survived all 6 events intact.  Not so Pete and Ilze, who both had mispunches in the last race.  Purely through mental fatigue, each of them missed one of the controls in the school – a shame after getting so close to the end.  It was the only race that Pete didn’t wear a “Think” top.

I definitely felt very leg weary during and after this race.  Hardly surprising, as we’ve covered considerably more distance than you would expect in a sprint, with little recovery time in between. But that’s what we signed up for, and it certainly delivered.  I can’t pick a single favourite map, I really enjoyed most aspects of all of them, particularly the technical sections.  The concept works best when considered as a whole, as the diversity of terrains really tests all abilities.  In a war of attrition, I think about half a dozen people in my age group dropped out, so while I was the slowest of those to finish each race, I wasn’t last overall – in fact I beat NZ’s best W50, when she mispunched this morning.  She had a huge overall lead, then threw the victory away by carelessly missing a control in the race with the easiest navigation.  As I write, final results haven’t been posted, so I’m not sure where I ended up overall.

Our drive back to Auckland was uneventful, with the weather clearing as we went north.  We stopped at Huka Falls in Taupo and watched the water thundering through a chasm and over the edge.  River cruise and jet boats both tried to get as close as they could to the whirling maelstrom at the bottom of the falls.

Now home and back to the grindstone …