Quest to be the fastest in the west

The sport of rogaine gets another airing in Auckland this weekend and is sure to be a head turner. Edward Rooney reports.
Expect to see roving bands of map-toting teams scrambling on a mad dash around west Auckland this Sunday. But don't worry, this is not a mass evacuation.
The racers are trying for the quickest times around a series of checkpoints as part of the 4th annual Waitakere Eco-City Challenge on Sunday, March 20.
Event director Shaun Collins says the Waitakere Eco-City Challenge is an urban navigation event - known as rogaine - where competitors can use buses as well as their feet.
Rogaine is a navigation sport in which teams of two-five members visit as many checkpoints as possible within a given time limit, sometimes up to 24 hours - but just two or four hours for this event. Teams navigate by map visiting checkpoints in any order, with checkpoints being allocated differing points. The highest score wins. Penalty points are deducted from a teams overall score for a late return.
"The nature of rogaine means that people of any age or ability can do the event at the pace they choose," Mr Collins says. "The added dynamic of buses in this event means less fit participants can cover a far greater area of the wonderful bush, tracks, and reserves around Waitakere City.
"Many of the checkpoints are at features of interest, for example: a huge tree stump covered in animal carvings, a huge eel sculpture, Millbrook edible garden, as well as many bush track bends and junctions, playgrounds, and parks and reserves."
Mr Collins says participants have been impressed in past years with the network of tracks and parks and even locals were amazed at how much off-road running they were doing, that they didn't know about previously.
Teams come from a variety of backgrounds, including many trying the event for the first time and some seasoned teams.
"With the introduction this year of a two-hour event to complement the four-hour event we expect many family and school teams to compete too.
Participants are given an all-day bus pass from Ritchies buses and a complete set of timetables.
"This makes the one-hour planning time for the event a challenge with teams sprawled around the event centre, with maps and timetables laid out around them as they plan their route," Mr Collins says. "Passersby must wonder what they had come across."
The main objectives of the event are:
1. To promote health and fitness in a novel and attractive way
2. To foster knowledge and use of the increasingly comprehensive network of walk and cycle ways in Waitakere
3. To promote knowledge of public transport in Waitakere
4. To promote Waitakere City
5. To generate funds for WESTY Trust to disburse to talented young Waitakere residents and/or youth organisations (according to criteria established by the trust) is one of the objectives of the event.
More info, see: www.ecocitychallenge.co.nz