Last week we held the AGM for ONZ, where we presented the annual report for 2022 and passed two important changes for the sport; a revised constitution and a new Event Levy and Affiliation fee policy. I won’t go into the detail of what these changes are, as these have been described elsewhere, including previous […]

We caught up with Yvette Baker after seeing her photographed on the same podium (with the same time) as Alistair Landels. So a  Kiwi living in Britain and a Brit living in NZ decided to take over the podium for the Day 2, Middle event at High Dam in the Jan Kjellström International Festival of Orienteering 2023. Yvette […]

By Geoff Greenwood, 2022 Head Coach 2022 was the first time in three years that we had sent our Secondary Schools orienteers across the Tasman to compete against the Australian States, and just the second time with the two selected teams, NZ Karahiwi and NZ Harua competing for the Southern Cross trophy. This meant a […]

We asked North west if we could reprint the tribute article on Robin Ambler from last year.  Robin Ambler, Long-time North west Orienteering Club member passed away in late September last year. Robin’s daughter Kirsten Blake and grandson Blake are NW club members and Robin’s wife Gay is also well known to the club. Dave Middleton encouraged […]

Little stories from our O community, and it is ONZ’s 50 year,  We know many come to orienteering to hone their navigation. We have some seriously multi-skilled sports people, who are looking for regular navigation and fitness training  Lisa Ainley (PAPO)- from MTB races and ultra trail runs into orienteering Lisa loves to find new and interesting challenges […]

Many clubs have concluded their summer series events, with the focus shifting to Autumn events with the prospect of some more challenging terrain on farms and forest maps. One of the great highlights of Autumn is the Katoa Po night relays, hosted by Orienteering Taupo. I love this event and try to make it every […]

This year we’ll find ways to test yourself on what you know about orienteering in New Zealand to celebrate our 50th year anniversary. The answers will be after the ‘Last points’ at the end of this news email. (You may need to click on the three dots at the base to see the full newsletter).Many […]

Those who have been involved in Orienteering circles for a little while will likely know Jenni Adams – PAPO President, ONZ Council member, JWOC Manager…  There is very little Jenni has not achieved and/or been involved in with within orienteering in NZ in recent years. What many may not know is that Jenni is an astrophysicist that […]

Early in January Paul Ireland and I had a call from Rob Garden asking us to set an event in Riverhead in February. We asked to use the Robinson Rd map and we decided on the south end of the map as that was due for felling next year and the northern end had been used last […]

Firstly I’d like to thank all the planners and organisers of the Waitangi weekend – it was a great weekend of racing with some superb courses.We were both travelling out of Europe for the first time this summer and also competed in the Oceania carnival in Tasmania. The KO sprint was a real test physically […]

Katoa Po is New Zealand’s premier night orienteering competition! Teams of 5 or 7 battle out their navigation in the darkness. Steve Oram has been a regular participant and rates this weekend full of events a highlight.  Katoa Po is always a highlight of the calendar and this year was no different. There was a good number […]

A belated Happy New Year to you all, and hoping many of you have had a positive start to 2023. That said, I know a few of our community have been impacted by the recent flooding  – our thoughts are very much with those of you affected, and hope the clean-up and fixes get you […]

We didn’t know we’d be asked to write a report about the Christmas 5 Days until we met Joolz at the Hobart shorts, but we’re delighted for the chance to reflect on the great terrain and excellent events. The Xmas 5 Days in 2022 was held west of the Blue Mountains, on the traditional lands […]

At the invitation of Orienteering Australia, Luděk Krtička, a Member of the IOF Map Commission, visited Australia during the 2022 Australian Orienteering Championship week of Events held in Victoria. The primary purpose of his visit was to show him a variety of Australian mapped terrains, to assess the quality of map making and to have […]

Craig Steffens in Australia has notified us of an awesome Aussie MTBO Champs, and to invite many for the ANZ challenge – it will be the first time since 2019. For those who don’t know the ANZ challenge it is a competition between an Australian and a NZ team of selected MTBO’ers, taken from across […]

PAPO will host the 2023 NZ MTBO champs on maps close to Christchurch, including 2 new maps. All locations are within 45mins drive from Christchurch airport.  Provisional programme (subject to landowner approval) for the NZ MTBO champs 2023: Prior to this weekend (on Anzac day – Tue 25th April), there will be a 3hr / 6hr […]

Matt Ogden has been busy creating some Christmas orienteering cheer. Navmas in the Chambers the inaugural end-of-year navigation competition was around the Tasman District Council building – a 3 story “rabbit warren” as the Mayor calls it.  It was organised by Matt Ogden and Martin Doyle with support from Annemarie Hogenbirk.  Aa an “urban” rogaine […]

The bulletin has been released and entries are open for the Southern O-weekend 2023 will be held on a variety of sprint and terrain maps around Christchurch. Includes individual sprint, knock-out sprint and sprint relay as well as forest races. The elite races at Waitangi Orienteering Weekend will have more than just NSL points on […]

A bit of a story about a Rogaine adventure, particularly for map sport enthusiasts. In October Rolf Boswell competed in the 2022 Australiasian Rogaine Championships which doubled up as the 2022 Australian Rogaine Championships.  The traditional Rogaine championship event is a 24 hour endurance challenge.  It starts with a shout of ‘GO!’ at noon on […]

A few weeks ago Nick Collins won a 2022 Impact Sport award from Sport Taranaki for his motivational role in navigation sports. This award recognises Nick’s dedication to the sport over 30 years. We had a quick chat with him.   1.  You have certainly made sure navigation sports and orienteering gets due recognition amongst the […]

How does the idea of tripling the orienteering membership in the next 5 years sound? Or having a stronger place for young adults to feel part of the sport outside high performance? Or where running major events is exponentially easier than it currently is? These are just a few of the things that came out […]

There will be a Memorial Service for Bunny at 9am on Thursday 22 December 2022 at the Anderson’s Bay Cemetery Chapel in Dunedin for Bunny Rathbone. Any ONZ members would be most welcome to attend. Below is a link to the tribute web page which anyone can visit and contribute to: www.weremember.com/bunny-rathbone/0o2u/memories?utm_campaign=memorial_share

We were very saddened to hear about the passing of Ann Scott, following a long illness. We know that Ann had a long history with orienteering and was a stalwart of the Southland orienteering scene who contributed a huge amount over many decades. By all accounts much of this contribution was done without fanfare, driven […]

It definitely sounds like Wairarapa’s recent 40th Anniversary celebrations went well. Bryan Teahan has kindly put together a results booklet to mark the event. For those interested, please click here to read the PDF.

In October council approved a proposed new format for deciding personal places at WOC. In simple terms, those that win the 21E categories at the Oceania Champs get personal places at WOC over and above those allocated to their country. With the division of WOC into Sprint in even years and forest in odd years, […]

Good vision is crucial in orienteering, so you want to optimise it to make competing easier. In this article I will go through several ways you can assist your eyes in reading maps more clearly. Glasses are most people’s go to solution to see, which is great, but they have limitations in orienteering. The lenses […]

Many of you will know about Sport New Zealand’s “Balance is Better” campaign that discourages early specialisation in sport, advocating for our tamariki and rangatahi to be exposed to a range of sporting opportunities early in their lives. In this article Hamish Rogers reviews David Epstein’s book “Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialised World“, […]

A huge thank you to Orienteering Australia and David Jaffe for letting us re-print this article on the side of orienteering carnivals that the general public never sees: Nine races in nice days.  Bigger than O-Ringen, Swiss O week, Scotland’s skimpy six days and Finland’s feeble five days. We Aussies are made of sterner stuff.  Well […]

From November and once every month until February 2023, you will have a unique opportunity to get insights on orienteering development all over the world. IOF’s Global Development Commission hosts webinars every first Tuesday evening in Europe translated to a 7.30am Wednesday morning webinar in NZ with  presenters and input from various federations and orienteering […]

All kiwi orienteers have been invited to Western Australia for next year’s Australian Orienteering Championships and Kambarang Karnival incorporating the Australian Schools Orienteering Champs (ASOC) 2023. It looks like it features a load of granite terrain. The Bulletin One PDF linked blow has more details on the 2023 Australian Schools event.  The programme:Event 1: Sat 30 Sept AUS […]