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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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“, […]

Way back on the 9th July we shared our intention to select a teams for the World Schools Orienteering Championships. At that stage there was no information available despite us reaching out to the international body responsible for the event – the International Schools Federation (ISF). Over the last two months we have continued to have dialogue […]

As Chair of a minority sport in NZ, I was interested in hearing the news about  NZ Rugby forfeiting $280k of Sport NZ funding, for failing to meet a gender diversity target of 40% women on their Board. Whilst the story about gender and inclusion is an important one, what struck me about this news […]

The orienteering season starts this weekend. Taupo Orienteering Club chairman Lyndon Haugh says the lead-up to the beginning of the season has seen eight schools take part in orienteering training sessions during term two. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/rotorua-daily-post/news/taupo-orienteering-2022-season-opens-with-rogaine/FCQ66TMDWXAN7MYWOSEAOXIUQU/

It has been a fantastic month seeing kiwi orienteers competing on the world stage, and congrats to all of the athletes that competed at WOC, JWOC, and WMTBOC. In the ultra competitive environment of world champs racing, our athletes will have been tested in ways just not possible in our national competitions which has been […]

If you think “Rip a page from a book” might make a change from SI Air, and maps with minimal or inaccurate vegetation could be fun, then the Berkley Marathon might be your event. It has worldwide notoriety, and a small hardy field of entrants in a ‘last man standing’ style-event that not many finish […]

Cameron de Lîle was awarded recognition at Nationals for his mapping project which is aiming to create a highly detailed (1:10,000 scale) map of all of New Zealand.  The first lockdown inspired the start of this project when Cameron discovered some software called Karttapullautin on a Finnish MapAnt website which has a high resolution map of […]

Club background Waikato Orienteering club began life as the Hamilton Orienteering club in July 1975. Within a year it had built up a membership of 51. With help from the NZ Orienteering Federation and the (now defunct) Pinelands club, the club was able to acquire equipment to run events. The presidents report of 1976 noted: […]

The month of May has been a very good month for the profile of orienteering across the community and the general public. The article on Lizzie Ingham which appeared in the Locker room (Newsroom), and picked up by a number of media channels was a brilliant insight to one of NZ’s top orienteers. Nothing new […]

Auckland Orienteering Club member Kieran Woods has been named to manage the New Zealand World Universities Orienteering Championship (WUOC) Team. Woods, admits to being excited to be appointed to the position only, having competed at the WUOC in 2018, the year teammate Tim Robertson won Gold in the Sprint. Kieran was the 2019 Orienteering New […]

Cardiac arrest and open heart surgery haven’t slowed down top Kiwi orienteer Lizzie Ingham, who’s on her way to her yet another world championship, Merryn Anderson writes.

Take on the challenge of NZ’s largest annual rogaine adventure!The Great Forest Rogaine is a team navigation event with 3 and 6 hour Foot and MTB categories utilising the track network of the world famous Whakarewarewa Forest.  You are bound to go places in the forest you have never been before.This event is suitable for […]

50 years of New Zealand Orienteering Championships, we are now at the eve of NZOC2022. The calm before the storm. It seems that making it to the start line for this year’s nationals is itself a challenge with many succumbing to COVID or the isolation requirements in the final week. The event though has seen some […]

A few insights from many of our orienteers who were participating on what is considered one of the toughest GODZone events. Craig Pelvin | Godwits: 1. How do you prepare for GODZone? Training. As a team all with jobs and families this required a lot of juggling and full team ended up only being a couple of weekends […]

After the success of Nationals 2021 and the camping options at Leighton’s Farm, NWOC wanted to put on a 2-day weekend with maps and camping all in close proximity. The old Wilson Road map, once owned by Rob and Marquita, had been nicely growing away over the last 20 years and with local contacts, permission […]

A night nav relay race for all ages   Katoa Po is one of New Zealand’s longest running orienteering events. Started in 1981, it’s seen teams from all of New Zealand do battle over Taupō’s unique volcanic terrains in the thick of night. One of the highlights of the event is the age restrictions placed on different […]

Brief club background:  Counties Manukau Orienteering Club (CMOC) sees orienteering as a special sport that you can participate in from almost any age, and over your whole life. It has the potential to be an integral part of our communities’ wellbeing, both physically and mentally. The Club has a deep passion for removing or minimising […]

Well, after 2 years of avoiding Covid like the plague (sorry), it is finally here amongst us. Certainly in my immediate family there have been several cases in recent days and weeks, including one of our boys currently, so I am writing this mid isolation. I hope for those of you also dealing with this, […]

Ingham and Lynch Resume Service Freyberg High School and Pit Park in Palmerston North provided the backdrop for the first ever National Sprint League (NSL) race this evening. While the map and series may be brand new, our victors were certainly not – both Joseph Lynch and Lizzie Ingham picking up where they left off […]

1. Kia ora Michael, welcome to your new role. Can you talk about your orienteering background and what special skills you are bringing to this role? I first started orienteering back in the late 80s at Kaiapoi High School when I was a member of PAPO. I’ve always loved maps and can remember spending hours studying […]

This week we had an excellent meeting with the organising team for the Nationals. Despite the situation we are currently in on the exponential curve of increasing Covid cases, the team remain committed and positive about running the Nationals in Easter around Nelson. Talking with a number of orienteers in recent weeks, I think the […]

Well 2022 has well and truly kicked off in fine style for Orienteering, and big congrats to PAPO and Dunedin for running a very successful “Not the” Oceania Orienteering Champs and support events in Canterbury and Otago. Unfortunately I missed it through injury, but heard many positive things about the varied terrain and testing courses […]

Well, this Compass Point marks the end of what has been quite an eventful year. There’s been some highs, some challenges, and some losses. High on the list of losses was the passing of Bunny Rathbone in early November. I know this was a loss felt keenly by many people in the orienteering community, and […]

As I write this the Prime Minister has just been announcing the new traffic light system which will come into play once the country hits the 90% vaccination threshold. It is exciting to think that this system offers us the chance to work, socialise, play, and re-connect with people whilst living with Covid in the […]

The last few weeks I seem to have been a magnet for anything to do with rules. Before I go into this, I have to declare that I’m not a massive proponent of having lots of rules – my philosophy, partly developed through my work as a business consultant, but also having a father who […]