PAPO are thrilled to be hosting the 2026 New Zealand Secondary School Orienteering and Rogaine Championships in and around Ōtautahi Christchurch, from Thursday 16th July to Sunday 19th July 2026. The following embargoes will apply to competition areas. An embargo is an out of bounds restriction over specific dates, which prevents athletes accessing  competition area prior to the competition taking place. These embargoes apply to all competitors and other persons, to avoid anyone gaining a competitive advantage through recent knowledge of the terrain. All athletes attending the NZ Secondary Schools’ Orienteering Championships (NZSSOC) must abide by these embargoes leading up to the events, and anyone breaching these will be non-competitive at NZSSOC 2026. All the embargoes can be viewed at this Google Map link.

We’re really looking forward to welcoming year 7-13 students from across Aotearoa New Zealand for 4 days of exciting navigation sport on some of the best maps the Canterbury region has to offer. We’re shaking things up for 2026 by kicking off with the relay event first on the Thursday afternoon, getting right into the school team competition from the outset, on a classic forested sand-dune area that will offer fast but technically challenging terrain.

That will be great preparation for the first individual event the following day, held on similar but only recently-mapped terrain, so lots of new detail to discover. The orienteering champs will be rounded out by a fast and furious sprint event held at the fabulous Lincoln University campus on the Saturday, where there will be route-choice galore amongst the mix of heritage and new award-winning buildings. 
But that’s not all: you’ll have the opportunity to compete as school teams once again in the Rogaine Championships on Sunday on the stunning Port Hills overlooking the city, for yet more navigation fun, this time with the added challenge of making the right strategic choices to get back within the 3hr time limit. This will be held in the morning and within 30min of the airport to allow those travelling from out-of-town to make it back for school the next day. 

Parallel races for supporting adults and general public will be held at the long, sprint and rogaine events. 
Watch this space for entries opening soon in the New Year, but in the meantime, save these dates, you don’t want to miss this!