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History of Orienteering in NZ

Show Profile  onemanfanclub Posted: 11 December 2012, 12:48 PM  
I heard something today which raises the possibility orienteering in New Zealand started neither in Auckland in the 1970s nor Otago in the 1950s but a few hundred years earlier in the King Country. Ngati Rereahu tradition tells of a famous running race between their ancestor Te Kanawa and a Tuwharetoa chief (by the name of "more research required to find that out")from approximately what is now Pureora Village to also approximately Ongarue north of Taumaranui. The Tuwharetoa dude took the left hand route choice, keeping to the flatter country around where the west Lake Taupo highway now goes, before crossing the ranges south of Mt Pureora, while Te Kanawa took a straighter route around the western flanks of Pureora, pretty much where the soon to be completed Timber Trail MTB track goes. As with all well set long legs, the balance between the two routes must have been pretty close as, in the version of the story I heard, Te Kanawa only grabbed the win when his rival tripped in the final run in to the finish. (personally I'd have gone for another route choice a little further to the right of Te Kanawa's, leading into the valley that the NIMT railway now follows, that they both seemed to have missed seeing)

Show Profile  Michael Posted: 15 December 2012, 11:50 AM  
At last we can use the lessons of history to solve the great questions of today. Was it 1:15,000 or 1:10,000?

Show Profile  DICK & TRISH Posted: 2 March 2013, 4:48 PM  
We have a 100% record of our NZ Orienteering lives from first event 19 May 1974 to our departure for Scotland after Queens birthday weekend events 1980.The death in the forest was the NZ Veteran team captain Allan Brown a bank manager from Taupo aged only 43 and was in 1977. Trish & I were running for NZ in the Australasian Relay Champs in Woodhill May 8 1977 and she and Alan had a conversation in the start about whether she should be running whilst 7 months pregnant.He was running first leg for NZ senior A team and was found lying near the first control. Allan was founder of TAUPO orienteering club a former chairman of NZOF and manager of the 1973 team to Australia. Good to hear you have had no more O forest deaths as we have had two in Scotland in 1994 and 1995. In the first I was the controller and the second was a club mate who had helped me with the first death the year before. His words "no finer place for an orienteer to die". This sentiment also applied to Allan Brown's heart attack. Dick & Trish Burbidge (Carmichael)

Show Profile  Rog Posted: 9 October 2013, 4:21 AM  
A short history of orienteering in New Zealand
http://nzorienteering.com/nzof/A_short_history_of_orienteering_in_New_Zealand.pdf (556KB)
The year 2013 marks the 40th anniversary of the founding of the New Zealand Orienteering Federation. A brief history has been prepared to mark the occasion. However, it remains incomplete (see Foreword) and author Stuart Payne invites feedback so the missing details can be added and it can be finalised. Contact email address is available on http://nzorienteering.com/ homepage.

Show Profile  Michael Posted: 9 October 2013, 7:37 AM  
Well done Stuart!

Show Profile  Michael Posted: 10 October 2013, 10:10 AM  
Stuart rightly says this is a SHORT history and he can't include everything. So I'd like to fill a gap by repeating my request to track down one of those course overprinters. Either one of the smooth ones from Sweden or the chunky battleship model created by Colin Greedus of KH. I'd give it a good home, and only bring it out occasionally when people complain about the work involved in making events:-))

Show Profile  Jamie Posted: 10 October 2013, 5:00 PM  
Love it!

Imagine what Leppin Sport Orienteering Club might have become if it hadn't been throttled at birth.

Great to have a list of Nationals as memories start to get confused with one another.

Stuart, your next task is a history of TWALK, complete with maps, planners and winners.

It seems there is a lot of stuff that used to happen that we don't do anymore. Coaching, Development, National Mag, Publicity,

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