An early start and a longish drive brought us to Woodhill Forest, which runs the length of a peninsula on the west coast, about 90 minutes from Auckland.  Thanks to the rain, we parked a long way away from the arena, but it was a nice walk in.  We were told to allow 30 minutes to walk from the arena to the start, but it was only 15 minutes, on a narrow, rough and steep track which overlooked Lake Rototoa, and took us through moss covered trees which were dripping after another refreshing shower of rain – the type of forest I call goblin forest.  Everyone was gathered at the start wondering just what we were in for.

I set off in some trepidation, as sand dunes in pine forest are not exactly my specialty.  I decided a conservative approach was best, at least until I felt like I had my head into the map.  I stuck on my compass bearing to the first control until I came to the top of an embankment, checked the map, and realised my control was just a little off to the right. Bingo! First control under my belt. The next one was a short distance away so again I followed a bearing, ignoring the small contour details.  I stood on a mound immediately north of my control, surveying the territory – all I needed to do was keep going on my line.  Eventually I did just that.  Feeling slightly more confident now as I was reading the features, I followed the red line to no 3, dropped down a couple of contours, and there it was.

Now it was time to get out onto a nearby track, and run to no 4.  This was my only error, as I overran my attack point and had to backtrack through the cutty grass, which is more correctly called toi toi, or pampas grass.  A few minutes lost doing that.  Back onto the very useful track to no 5, which was located close to a drinks stand.  The next few controls were very straightforward, just jumping on and off the track.  The last four were back in the dunes, and I had no problems with 8 or 9.  For no 10 I drifted too far right and had to correct across to the right gully, and for no 11 I made a poor route choice, opting to contour round a hill instead of going over it.  No problems with the final control, downhill to the finish, 1 hour and 7 seconds, and a pretty clean run.

Checking the results, I discovered I was fourth, but still plenty of others to come in. I expected to be pushed down towards mid field, but to my surprise and pleasure, I hung on.  The washup – fourth overall, first Australian (yay!) and third in the Oceania category – the German woman who won not being from the Oceania region.  No prizes are awarded for A Short classes in New Zealand, so I didn’t actually miss out on anything, and I don’t think I could have made up the five minutes on third place. I was pretty happy with the outcome, and most importantly, I really enjoyed the terrain – we have four more events on Woodhill’s dunes, so its just as well.  It was a great start to the fortnight and made up for yesterday’s disappointment in the Sprint.

Tomorrow – Relays. Can’t wait!