The Board met at the start of the month (we’ve been trialling 2x meetings a term this year rather than monthly as many on the Board have kids and are off on holidays in school holidays), we finalised updates to a number of policies (G1 Selection Policy, G1 Appendix – Selection Principles and Criteria), G3 […]

Qualification – 5 Aug. Map: Mnichovice / Minichschlag It was a hot 33°C day for the first event in a Czechia – a qualification race where the top 20 in each heat progress to the long and middle A Final races, and the remaining competitors raced in the B and C Finals. Joe Lynch safely qualified for […]

Sprint KnockoutThe 2026 World University Orienteering Champs 28 July started with a Knockout sprint qualification elimination round in Vila Real, Portugal. The team faced very high and dry temperatures which lasted all week, but were excited to compete in the network of steep historic stone alleyways and multi-level areas. Felix qualified through to the Knockout […]

The Association of Intermediate and Middle Schools (AIMS) Games is held annually in Tauranga, with the orienteering events on the Monday 7 & Tuesday 8 September. This is is the largest annual sporting event in Australasia. This year the AIMs sprint course will be in new terrain, based at Tauranga Racecourse and neighboring golf course. The courses will […]

Nelson and Marlborough Orienteering Clubs invite all orienteers to Te Tau Ihu o te Waka-a-Maui to celebrate high-quality spring orienteering during the A-level 2026 Taitonga South Island Orienteering Championships. This Labour Weekend (24-26 October) event truly shows how interconnected the orienteering community is: setters from Hawke’s Bay, Marlborough and Christchurch working really well with controllers from Marlborough, Christchurch […]

Wildfire Sports are offering great prizes at the Oceania Long Champs in October including:• Cash prizes to the long distance M21E and W21E winners• Plus two random cash prizes to a male and a female winner from other classes at the same event.Oceania entries will close on 5 September 2026. Enter Oceania here.

Orienteering New Zealand (ONZ) has been seeking feedback from the club community about the future of School Sport New Zealand (SSNZ) sanctioned secondary school events. The Board will consider all feedback at its meeting in September in relation to our strategic plan, values, growth of participation, sustainability for clubs and volunteering. Time frame:• 14 August […]

Camp Information Dates: Mon 14 Dec (arrival from 3pm) – Fri 18 Dec (10am departure)Venue: Teapot Valley Christian Camp, Brightwater, Tasman. Key dates for leading up to the Junior Camp: Camp Manager Position Below is the position description for the Camp Manager Position which closes on Fri 16 September: Description: This is not a paid position, but a Koha is attached […]

Orienteering Taranaki President Tom Higgins, (pictured in article) is both an orienteer and farmer, and he figured the best way to find new orienteering areas was simply to ask the local community. Two local papers – Opunake and Coastal News and The Stratford Press have featured an article for the club, and it has created […]

Ahead of updating its website in 2027, ONZ is seeking someone to perform a statistical analysis of our digital points of contact including our website, social media, Compass Point Newsletter, and YouTube Channel. The intent of the audit is to assist the Board to understand the following: If you are interested in this role, please email our General Manager by […]

The 2026 Australia-New Zealand Challenge will be held in Canberra, Australia from 26 September to 04 October 2026, in conjunction with the Oceania Orienteering Championships. The Challenge will consist of an Individual Challenge, based on the Oceania Long Distance, Middle Distance and Sprint Distance Championships, and a Relay Challenge, based on the Oceania Relay Championships. […]

The ONZ High-Performance Steering Group provides strategic oversight and advice for the development of High-Performance orienteering in New Zealand. The group is responsible for developing High-Performance policy, overseeing athlete development pathways, and providing recommendations on selection policies, development programmes, and other High-Performance initiatives. The group works alongside the National Performance Leader and was created one […]

Easter 4-day — Day1— Through The eyes of an M45A’er When reading in the programme that the starter may exclude competitors who were inadequately clad, one wondered what we were in for. Much to our surprise Easter in the Wellington region was near perfect. Sunny, dry days made for long and enthusiastic post-mortems on each […]

WOW what a busy July we have had – and we haven’t even had a Board meeting! Our athletes have been racing hard at the NZ Secondary School Champs (thanks PAPO for organising). We also have had athletes competing overseas in Genoa, Italy for WOC – check out Orienteering Wellington’s club post about one of the World Champs knock-out sprint semi-final […]

JWOC26  |  Karlskrona 29 June – 4 July  Individual SprintThe Individual Sprint kicked off the 2026 Junior World Orienteering Championships with 338 Athletes lined up along with and 98 team officials from 40 countries.  It was a sharp-witted start to the first up race. Several runners were caught out by a tricky initial direction decision straight […]

The four day Secondary Schools Orienteering and Rogaine Championships kicked off in various locations around Ōtautahi Christchurch in July. The national orienteering championships marked an important milestone as it follows an announcement by the International Orienteering Federation that Canterbury, New Zealand will host the Junior World Orienteering Championships in 2029. Many of the secondary school […]

It was a huge turnout for the 2026 Orienteering Big Day Out with a  large increase in participation in spite of an initial postponement due to bad weather. Over 600 Primary and Intermediate school students from eight schools in the Taupo and surrounding districts took part in an orienteering big day out with rogaining events […]

Nelson and Marlborough Orienteering Clubs invite all orienteers to Te Tau Ihu o te Waka-a-Maui to celebrate high-quality spring orienteering during the A-level 2026 Taitonga South Island Orienteering Championships, Labour Weekend of 24-26 October 2026 in the beautiful Tasman District. We look forward to welcoming fellow orienteers from the South and the North Island of […]

The Canterbury Schools Orienteering Festival is an annual event and the 2026 event will also incorporate the South Island Secondary Schools Orienteering Champs. If you’re a school-aged student attending a primary, intermediate or secondary school, or you’re homeschooled, in Canterbury or beyond, you’re invited to be part of this exciting schools orienteering festival. With a range of […]

The Hodgson sisters received the inspiring ‘Team that stands out from the rest award’ at the New Zealand Secondary School Orienteering Championships (NZSSOC). We caught up with the family to hear their reflections on the championships and what else they also love to do when they travel to orienteering events. As a family we love to run, […]

This is the final year these sponored awards will be in this format. around the NZSSOC. Do let us know what you thought of these awards for school athletes, teams and supporters.  Nateva winnerThe NSSOC Nateva Award went to Micah Dunn from Nayland College. His nomination said: “I’d like to nominate Micah Dunn because he […]

Hot off winning three medals the NZ Secondary School Orienteering, PAPO member Luke Jansen was in the winning U18 team at the very first Junior Adventure Racing World Championship (JARMS) with his Canterbury team mate Silas Jones from July 23 to 26, 2026 in Quebec, Canada. Endurance Aventure announced the Black Diamond NZ team as inaugural winners […]

The Great Forest Rogaine continues to evolve with record youth participation. More than 540 competitors took part in this year’s Great Forest Rogaine, reaffirming its place as one of New Zealand’s premier navigation and endurance events. Hosted by Orienteering Bay of Plenty (OBOP), the event once again brought together mountain bikers, rogainers, adventure racers, families […]

An ONZ Controllers Clinic will be held in Christchurch over the weekend of 7th – 8th of November based at St Martins School.  The Clinic will be run by Alister Metherell. The course will be of interest to course planners, controllers and organisers who wish to update their skill-set, for all events from club events […]

The IOF Young Leaders Academy 2026 took place from the 27th of June – 5th of July in Val Di Sole, Italy.  I was lucky enough to attend this year. YLA is run in conjunction with the 5 days of Italy orienteering event which this year had over 2000 participants and 46 nations attending. YLA […]

Dates:  Junior Camp – Arrive Mon 14th Dec (pm), depart  Fri 18th Dec (am)  Youth Camp – Arrive Fri 18th Dec (pm), depart Sun 20th Dec (am)  Location:  Teapot Valley, 200 Teapot Valley Road, Brightwater, Nelson More information will be released in the next month

After the recent JWOC29 Announcement we wasted no time asking the Gustafsson family what they thought of the terrain around Christchurch. They were touring around New Zealand and their family joined in the New Zealand Secondary School Orienteering Champs events in July.  1. Where are you from in Sweden and what made you want to come to […]

The next Australia-New Zealand Challenge will be held in Canberra, Australia from 26 September to 04 October 2026, in conjunction with the Oceania Orienteering Championships. The Challenge will consist of an Individual Challenge, based on the Oceania Long Distance, Middle Distance and Sprint Distance Championships, and a Relay Challenge, based on the Oceania Relay Championships. […]

The fourth round of the 2026 IOF World Cup will be held in the Druskininkai, Lithuania from 22-27 September 2026, in conjunction with the 2026 European Orienteering Championships. The programme will consist of a long distance, middle distance and relay. New Zealand is entitled to enter up to 8 men and 8 women in all […]

The MTBO Selection Panel has selected the following team to contest the AUS-NZL MTBO Challenge that takes will be contested as part of the Australian MTBO champs help in Ballarat, Victoria 8-11 October 2026 W21 Marquita Gelderman, North West  Lisa Haycock, Bay of Plenty  W40 Karyn Kerrison, Bay of Plenty  Tui Hambrook, Bay of Plenty Nicole […]