Orienteering: Junior pair on right track

Strategy was the key for the 150 orienteerers who took part in this year's Great Forest Rogaine.

Organised by Orienteering Bay of Plenty, Saturday's event in the Whakarewarewa Forest saw teams of two, three or four navigate to as many of the 50 checkpoints as they could within either three or six hours.

Competitors could choose to go by foot, mountain bike or a combination of both - three hours on foot followed by three hours on a bike.

One hour was allowed at the start of the day for competitors to plan which checkpoints to go for (those harder to reach were worth more points) and how to get there - the detailed map showed roads, walking tracks and mountain bike trails although they were not named.

Rogaine first-timer Joshua Lee, 15, and team-mate Lewis Ryan, 14, enlisted the help of Joshua's dad to plan their strategy but once out in the forest they were on their own.

That meant with time running out the pair made a call to go for two of the highest value checkpoints.

"We cut it fine at the end ... we were taking turns drafting to get there as quick as we could," said Joshua. "We got to the end with one minute to go so we had no time penalties."

The pair are members of the Rotorua Mountain Bike Club cross-country race team, which came in handy in the hot conditions.

"That helped because we had the fitness," said Joshua. "We only had to worry about the maps."

The pair were the top junior team, finishing sixth overall in the three-hour mountain bike category. They now hope to compete in further orienteering events.

"It was good endurance training," Joshua said.

"It was awesome, better than I expected."

Organiser Darren Ashmore of Orienteering Bay of Plenty said people came from all over the North Island for the events, including some of the country's best orienteerers.

The six-hour mountain bike title was won convincingly by Marquita Gelderman and Rob Garden of Auckland, a couple who have competed at the world mountain-bike orienteering championships.

"There were a lot of couples and families. It's a very cool thing for families to do," said Ashmore.

The club's next major event is the Summer Nav Series, a series of races around the Rotorua CBD, parks and forests that are open to all.

It kicks off in January - see www.obop.org.nz for details and full rogaine results.