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 […]
Just across the road, there is a river. Across the river, there is a bridge. Across the bridge, there is another bridge. Step onto that bridge if you dare, and enter a world of adventure … Admire the ancient Iron Age relics, including a strange rusted Relay Map Graveyard, perched above the river and positioned […]
After dinner, we headed back into Pukekura Park, in search of glow worms. It was still light when we arrived, so we took a leisurely stroll around the flatter parts beside the lake, reminiscing fondly about which way we went to which controls (it was all of a day and a half ago). At a […]
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 […]
We’ve come to New Plymouth to compete in the Lonely Mountain Sprints – Mt Taranaki being the “lonely mountain”. So named because there is nothing of comparable size anywhere, and when you can see it in all its glory, it completely dominates the view. Last time we visited, the skies were cloud free and we […]
We picked up our rental car this morning. It’s a Prius. None of us have ever driven a hybrid. We asked the nice rental car man for instructions. He explained how to start it. We followed his instructions and duly set off, heading south. Google said it would take us 4 hours plus, to get […]
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, […]
We’d left our plans for the last day flexible; with a 9pm flight, we had time for some last minute sightseeing, but what we did would depend on the weather. Yesterday’s rain (the only wet day of the whole trip) cleared overnight and we woke to blue skies and fluffy white clouds. We packed up, […]
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