Four Dunedin Orienteering families attended the Youth Orienteering Camp, December 20-22, in Christchurch. PAPO did an outstanding job of organising over a hundred kids who came from all over the country with great exercises, coaching and fun activities.

The camp was based at Spencer Park Top 10 Holiday Park.

Day one training was a short walk away in the beautiful Bottle Lake sand dune pine forest. We focussed on back to basics – orientating the map, folding and thumbing the map & attack points.

Plenty of play time on the slip and slide and bouncy pillow afterwards.

Day 2 saw us navigate through the rock maze at Kura Tawhiti, learning about how rocks are mapped, playing big group games in the rock amphitheater and then route choice training in the beach forest at Castle Hill, ending in a fun star relay in mixed ability teams. The cave stream caving after training was popular and a real highlight for many.

Day 3 at Canterbury University was all about sprint orienteering with lots of short exercises getting us used to sprint map specific symbols, changes in direction, quick decision making, route choice and ending with another fun star relay.

New friends were made, old friendships strengthened and new skills gained.

Lots of adults attending as coaches and helpers gained skills themselves as being part of the small group coaching.
Feedback from the kids included:
“I loved the cave stream caving. It was the best!”
“I learned so much and my orienteering is going to better for it.”
“I made new friends and enjoyed playing in the forest.”

Big thanks to the crew from PAPO for organising a fantastic camp and to all those parents, grandparents and coaches who helped out with coaching, transport, cooking and organisation.

Word on the street is that next year’s camp will be in Nelson so keep an eye out for info in the new year once plans form.