With the Junior World Orienteering Champs (JWOC) a month away, 8 members of the 12-strong team headed away to Kura Tāwhiti – Castle Hill for a weekend training camp of team bonding and specific training before heading to Europe.The weekend started on Friday night, with 5 of the team and coach participating in a cross country race event on Ilam […]

On Sunday the 18th of May the Manawatu Schools Individual Championships were held on Northbrook-Puketawa Farm near Palmerston North. This was the first time in many years that the school championships have been held outside of the Victoria Esplanade in central Palmerston North. The reason for this change of location was to cater for our […]

The series of 4 ‘After School Have A Go Orienteering’ sessions in March (over 50 attended), followed by pre-Southland School Champs coaching and course at Turnbull Thomson Park (over 60 there plus adults) led to probably the largest Southland School Champs in SOC’s history!  Over 150 individuals, competing individually or in pairs, enjoyed, (hopefully!), a […]

Amelia Horne has qualified for the 40km short course, and Dougal Shepherd for the 6.38km uphill event at the 2025 World Mountain and Trail Running Championships (WMTRC), to be held in the dramatic landscapes of Canfranc Pirineos in the Spanish Pyrenees. For both Nelson orienteers, qualifying was a bit of a surprise. Amelia, who is […]

The IOF Map Commission has recently finalised and published a document “Best Practices for Sprint Mapping“.  We have shared it with the ONZ Technical Committee who have suggested that while this is “fairly detailed and lengthy document primarily aimed at mappers, …it will be of interest to competitors to improve their understanding of sprint maps, and […]

Our Western Australian MTBO friends are preparing the main MTBO event of the year – the 2025 AUS MTBO Championships in WA, Collie, 5-7 September 2025.  All age groups welcome – from juniors to masters – and we’ve got a dedicated E-bike class too!This is more than just a race – it’s a celebration of our […]

Deb Bain & Sally Dickson are following the World Masters Series of MTBO in Europe from late May to early July, starting with the grandest event in Spain (World Masters Champs), then various regional events in Lithuania (European champs), Sweden (Danish camp), Austria & finally the popular Plzen 5 Days in Czech.  This report includes […]

O-Zone is in its soft launch phase this King’s Birthday weekend and is available for orienteers to explore and test – especially for mobile-friendly result functionality. It’s a great chance to try it out during this weekend’s King’s Birthday events and see how it performs. Since November 2024, Greg Bacchus has been quietly developing O-Zone, aiming […]

If you have enquiries from participants who don’t know what level to enter for their first, or successive events, these new ONZ reference tools will be a useful asset.  Gene Beveridge has put together a helpful guide for newcomers to orienteering, focusing on how to choose the right course. Orienteering events offer courses that vary […]

Summer season has well and truly gone, and the fluctuating weather of autumn landed smack bang with the NZ Orienteering Champs. A MASSIVE thanks to PAPO and the many other volunteers who put on some great races at nationals. The complexity of mapping, technical course setting and event organisation all happens thanks to a large […]

Brisbane invites you to Australian Championshipss 2025:• All events within easy drive of the city• Fly in for the weekend flagship events, or enjoy a full week of orienteering plus a warmup• Dash for Cash to reward the fastest Elite sprinters.• Night Relay for classes competing in the National Orienteering League.• Bulletin 1 available & […]

Hawkes Bay Orienteering are excited to be hosting you all in Te Matau-a-Māui for King’s Birthday Weekend. The event has three World Ranking Events (WREs), trials for the Southern Cross team, and days of memorable competition.• SPRINT Saturday 31st May: Keirunga Gardens and Iona College• MIDDLE Sunday 1st June: Smedley Station

The idea for hosting a knockout sprint event in 2025 was formed some time between the PAPO Christmas event and the High Performance camp in December 2024. Nathan Borton and Joseph Lynch realised there weren’t many knockouts on the 2025 calendar, despite it being such a fun and dynamic format. They agreed it deserved to […]

AKSS Relay – 6 May  Entries for this have closed on Wednesday 30 May.  AKSS Individual Long – 22 May This will take place in Waiuku Forest. More precise details will be available on the Schools’ Orienteering page, Counties Manukau Orienteering page AND College Sport. However, for those schools who know how it all works, entries are […]

 Any activity during this week could be a World Orienteering Week event! You can register it on the WOW website. Currently only North west have their event registered . Register your WOW event here. NZ events during this week are: Sun 18 May 2025 • Whangarei Orienteering Flyger Road 90 minute Rogaine –   Whangarei• North West Bivouac Outdoor Rogaine […]

Yes, that is Carsten Jørgensen above, featuring in Finland’s orienteering magazine ‘Suunnistaja’, and Yvette Baker features on the following page. Naturally it is in Finnish, with a feature on Hanne Hilo orienteering down under. We have an extensive summary by the managing editor Juho-Veikko . It is followed by some of his own observations and experiences travelling […]

This is a re-print of an article, reproduced by permission from the author, Mike Morffew from Tasmania Australia, but is relevant to all those interested in mapping issues: I have been involved with orienteering mapping for around 45 years, while also working professionally as a cartographer in Tasmania. There have been many changes to orienteering mapping over that […]

Now we are only weeks away from Nationals in Christchurch – woohoo see some of you there. Our Board meeting for March will be in early April but as a Board in March we have considered the updated constitution and the 2024 annual report – wow we have some great figures in there showing the […]

The 45th Katoa Po and Explorer events took place from the night of March 8th to 9th, 2025, under perfect cool and clear weather. The new/old map, Hoanga/Ngahiwi featured steep terrain, cliffs, and native bush that challenged competitors, especially in the dark. Around 120 competitors took part in the relay, 40 in the Explorer, and […]

Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari is New Zealand’s largest pest-proof fenced eco-sanctuary. The Waikato forest is home to much of New Zealand’s unique and endangered wildlife. After hearing that the Sanctuary was in a financial crisis Orienteering Waikato decided to organise a fundraising Rogaine on the Maunga. Aidan Boswell, Andrew de Groot and Mark Gray designed 3 courses (2,4 & […]

After taking over the role of PAPO OY statistician, in 2021, Ryan started developing a new OY points system to account for the new OY rules for that year. The new system was designed to calculate points automatically as opposed to manually having to update the points in a spreadsheet, and also had a web […]

Around this time last year, Linus Wernström and Filippa Braun sent in an application for a working holiday visa to New Zealand, which filled them with excitement and anticipation. They had no idea what lay ahead – but adventure was awaiting. Their southern hemisphere orienteering story is here: “The first step was choosing a city to […]

Over the last two months the Dunedin Orienteering Club has run its annual school series. Introduction to orienteering day – Sunday 16 February This year we started the series with a dedicated introduction to orienteering day at Otago Boys’ High School. The idea of this event to support new or novice students to understand not […]

Late last year we shared news in Compass Point of a new technology initiative and central hub known as O-Zone. We hope this will offer NZ orienteers an enhanced experience of accessing digital information on events, results, athletes and more. We are pleased to let you know development of the hub has taken strides thanks […]

Who is Navigation Games?Navigation Games is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization with the mission to develop, share anddeliver navigation education for children, engage families and enable access to the sport oforienteering, and promote public health through outdoor exercise. We believe orienteering is one ofthe best ways to not only encourage map navigation and outdoor physical activity […]

It’s hard to believe we are almost into March! We have an exciting year ahead for orienteering, Nationals at Easter hosted by PAPO is just around the corner. Many of our athletes will also be getting into their training in preparation for summer orienteering in Europe. Our selectors have been busy choosing our international teams. A big […]

OA’s Communications and Marketing Officer Liz Leung sat down with Brodie Nankervis, one of Australia’s most experienced elite athletes and OA’s Coach Development Manager to discuss his experience as an athlete and Team Leader at the recent Oceania Championships. Here are some of the highlights from the interview. Brodie: I was planning on going to Oceania […]

The MTBO Championships held in Alexandra and Naseby on the 1st and 2nd February provided a navigational variation for many orienteers.  Many of them also competed at the Oceania Championships in the North Island the week before and/or the Taitonga South Island Championships the following weekend. The entry list of 113 riders included 12 Australians […]

Southland Orienteering Club recently hosted the Taitonga South Island Orienteering Championships in the Waikaia Forest Conservation Area in Northern Southland, welcoming competitors, not only from throughout New Zealand but from around the world, representing Australia, New Caledonia, Denmark, Norway, England, Scotland, Ireland, Finland and Switzerland. The event was also attended by those trialling for the […]

The Australasian Champs are a 24 hour event – starting at midday on Saturday. We want everyone to count in the championships so we will not be running any other duration events. The course is set to cater for teams who want to do a shorter duration, or want to come back and sleep overnight. Please do […]