After 10 orienteering events in 12 days, the fun had to end.  We finished in style, with a final sprint race around the Auckland harbour precinct, known as Wynyard Quarter.  On a perfect day it was very picturesque, with the city skyline, Sky Tower, boats of all sizes, and the Wynyard Viaduct opening bridge, making […]

Yesterday’s second race was at Auckland Girls Grammar School, in the very hilly Ponsonby area. The arena was in a lovely grassy park with gorgeous spreading trees; the one whose shade we sat in must have been ancient, judging by its size.  As I had another late start, I had plenty of time to spectate, […]

There was plenty of overnight and morning rain as we farewelled Karangahake, and headed to Auckland.  Pam and Peter were already in the new lodgings in the southeast suburbs, and we were soon settled in.  My room has a workspace, and a walk in wardrobe, so I’m happy. We whiled away the morning and early […]

After our morning exploring the Karangahake Gorge, we retreated to the house, to plan our tour of the Coromandel Peninsula – aka “the sticky-outy bit” of the North Island, east of Auckland.  But first, we had more orienteering to do.  Hobbsy invited us to a local Maprun event organised by his club, in Hamilton.  It […]

The Taranaki-based competition concluded with a Sprint Relay, held at Pukeiti Botanical Gardens.  The organisers of this weekend have done a great job finding unusual venues for us.  Although we had to keep out of the formal gardens and other vegetated areas, there were plenty of paths and trails; they also used a lizard sculpture, […]

Well the rain reappeared with a vengeance, but fortunately it held off during our morning race.  While yesterday’s events were both at local schools, today’s venues offered something different.  Pukekura Park is something of a showpiece garden, with ornamental lakes and fountains, waterfalls, bridges, fern gullies, and lots of paths leading in all directions.  The […]

This morning we woke to rain; our Lonely Mountain was well and truly gone.  The radar suggested we’d be getting wet – and it was right.  Our lovely new DROC tops were buried under raincoats, and we looked gloomily out of the window, not enthused about any sort of outdoor activity.  We steeled ourselves, dived […]

It’s been almost five years, but Dipidydoo is finally having an Orienteering adventure Overseas!  Well three quarters of us are – I’m travelling with Pete and Ilze, while Ian is looking after things on the home (and streeto) front.  This time we’re joined by Pam and Peter.  We’re in the North Island of New Zealand, […]

What goes up, goes up even further. Debbie has already blogged about the adventures on the Skyline yesterday. She asked me to add a bit about my experience since I had a crack at it. I have only just stopped shaking enough to be able to type. That, of course, as with all of my […]

That may sound a bit Game of Thrones, but in fact today’s map was Mt Iron, on the edge of Wanaka on Hidden Hills Drive, about 60 kms from Queenstown. It rained most of the night and into the morning, and no-one was enthused.  But by 9am the rain cleared, the cloud lifted, and we […]