Orienteering Bay of Plenty and Taupo Orienteering Club are still planning to run the Tūāraki North Regional Champs at Labour Weekend 2021.

The events will go ahead if Auckland and the rest of the Northern region are all in Level 2 or lower at the date of the event.

The decision on whether to proceed will be made on 15^th October, and we have extended the entry closing date to 17^th October.  Note full details of the decision timings and entry fee refund policy are on the event page at www.obop.org.nz.

We are assuming we will be running the event under Level 2 and special protocols will be put in place to manage this.  The protocols will be communicated in the final bulletin.  To note particularly:

•  Competitors will be allocated into blocks of 100 or less competitors based on club and each block will be started within a time window to ensure we never have more than 100 people at the start area.
• The finish will be remote from the start and competitors will be asked to leave directly when they finish and generally not return to the start or registration areas.
• We will accommodate as many competitors as possible but may have to restrict entry numbers to ensure we can fit in enough time windows.

If all of the Northern region is in Level 1, we will relax unnecessary protocols as much as possible.

We have some exciting new maps for the events.  Expect a mix of open farmland and technical native to challenge you on the Long distance at Okere Falls, and also some interesting maps for the Taupo events.   With a few tweaks in event operation to ensure we comply with alert level requirements, and flexibility by organisers and competitors, we can all enjoy a great weekend of orienteering.  We encourage people to get their entries in as early as possible and book accommodation with appropriate cancellation provisions.