“They hovered silently at the track edge, staring intently into your soul as if waiting to take you into the underworld. One of them lurked behind the control and drifted slowly like the morbid undead towards you as you approached, making you race to dib your stick and be gone before she got there first and barred the way with her silent terror. Their faces were empty, eyes ghoulish and one look at them raised the hairs on the back of your neck.”

Southland Orienteering Club has extra event volunteers to find each winter. But the volunteers love it, they step-up and love getting scarily involved in this orienteering event. The account above was from Deidre Vercoe, of the ‘Tea Party Girls’, they are spooky scarers from the ‘Orienfearing’ event. You can choose from a ‘Brave’ course and a ‘Beginner’ course which was shorter and with less ‘scarers’. 

On Saturday 29th July, the “Orienfearing” event resumed after a 5-year hiatus. This gathering aimed to stir trepidation among orienteers on the grassy trails of Fosbender Park. In the dimly lit setting, captivating spectacles occurred: witches emerged, a vampire flew from the trees, and a zombie wandered through a makeshift cemetery. A chainsaw-wielding figure and other chilling characters added to the experience. 

Drawing 250+ participants, “Orienfearing” achieved spell binding success, with excitement for the return next year. The event definitely did not scare scare off new people, in fact it attracted a new dark crowd who had never orienteered before, along with the regular orienteers, who looked a bit irregular. It encouraged a new type of running style, not streamlined, not fast. A sprint style that zig-zags and has your arms flailing about  You try not to end up alone, and are suspicious of where each control is (that may not be new), and watch very closely where you are running.

It started at 6pm on one of the shortest days, we need the daylight hours to be shorter in the winter, and prefer it when it is dark early at 6.30pm. There are quite a few controls, and gathering of scary props to arrange and halloween falls far too late in the year when it is way too light. One of the team has taught themselves how to make fake wounds and do scary makeup and now is creating fake wounds for the local volunteer fire brigade training scenarios!

Feedback from SOC’s facebook:
“This was incredibly well done! We had an absolute blast. Laughed screamed and ran! The creativity and thought that went into it was appreciated. Thanks so much!”
“SOC this was next level!!! Best Saturday night out in a long time.  Thanks so much for putting on such an epic event! Love your work”

Many thanks to the creepily dedicated committee and the vampy volunteers for their efforts. Keep watch for the event’s thrilling return.

Watch the short horror movie here