Many of you will not have been fortunate enough to have known Terry in his heyday but Terry has to have been one of the most influential members of Auckland Orienteering Club (AOC) and will be remembered with huge fondness and a host of stories by all of us fortunate to remember him. His health has been poor for many years now but he was still coming and helping at school events and even the Auckland Triple Crown sprints long after he was able to go out. He was even the one to point out to me that I had the 2027 dates for the September sprints when I advertised them a couple of months ago and regretted the fact his health no longer allowed him to attend them. Below is a delightful article he wrote for the Auckland magazine 40 years ago – he was never slow to poke fun at himself but was a very competitive orienteer. He has also been very generous to the club, particularly to the training funds which were dear to his heart.

Joanna Stewart

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 days events, The carnival was well organised and the effort put in by the Wellington Orienteering Association was much appreciated.

Day One was at Forest Hill in the Tararua Ranges. Courses were tough and well planned through young forest and some steep farmland, It was surprising how many people did 180’s from the start triangle – well known names too, like Aspin and Brighouse etc.

As I took off to the start triangle I folded my map so that just my course was showing. After much hesitancy deciding which way to go, and not wanting to run back through the start area, I crashed through the forest in search of No.l control. Reached the circle area in a couple of minutes and found a control on a log in a stream, but alas the wrong code, Much silent cursing and rushing about. Was I in the wrong gully? Over a spur and into the next gully complex. Bingo – my control, Ax I made my way to No.2 control I thought ‘Gee, I hope the other 17 controls won’t be like that’, half blaming the course setter.

No.2 control was just where it should have been. Then across the road through the start area (the only bad feature of the course) and into dark, low forest. Found my site but it was an earth bank whereas I was looking for a re-entrant (top). Went back to the road, where I felt like a fool, more bearings, then back to the earth bank. ‘Help! What’s wrong with me?’ Wandered around in a daze and went higher up the slope by SO metres nearer the sunlight and what did I find – my control No.3. Off I sped, much happier, to control sites 4 and 5S. No problems in the forest thinnings as we are used to these in Woodhill.

Set compass for control 6 (No.34), bottom of a small hill. After a few minutes arrived at No.76, a shallow re-entrant. What’s this!!?? Should be a hill, Lay on ground to look for red flag on green hill. No luck. Ran around in circles and found three more controls. None mine, I sat on top of a knoll with a flag on, hands on head. A female orienteer came by and asked if I was okay. I said, ‘Yes, but I am lost’, so she kindly showed me where I was. Off I went again, like a tortoise, checking everything that was on the map. It must have taken 10 – 12 minutes to cover the 200 metres to the control site. All of a sudden there was a flag; Hurray! Checked the number, Oh S…! No.76 again. As I rushed back around the forest, into streams, up banks, I began to taste the pizza I had eaten the previous night in Tokoroa. The only thing that kept it down was the horrible cheese which acted like a lead
weight and refused to let the pizza move in any direction. After 40 minutes hunting for control 34 I sat down and opened up my map to see if I was on the right planet. It was then that I discovered I had picked up a course 4 map at the start, instead of course 3,

Back to the start I trudged. Yes, the map boxes were all next to each other. There was no grid or anyone checking courses against
numbers, so it was easy enough to make a mistake if you were not concentrating. I had been busy chatting to an old friend – no excuse.

It was a 20 minute walk back down to the finish. I was given another start time (unofficial), cadged a motor bike ride back up to
the start, and a tired 45’er took off again, No problem at the start this time. I had a reasonable time of 73.47, still 7 minutes behind the winner, Keith Stone, but 6 minutes ahead of the official 2nd placed orienteer, Graham Fortune.

Well, I won’t take the wrong map again in a hurry but then there are a dozen other things that can go wrong. The answer is to concentrate.

Terry Nuthall