Preparing for Oceania

onemanfanclub Posted: 13 July 2007, 12:52 PM   While Australia's still on everybody's minds, I'd like anyone answering "yes" to any of the following questions to get in touch with me soonish (nic_gorman at yahoo dot com dot au), or if you've got more general advice just post to this topic... (for the record, I answer yes to question 1!) 1) Will you be making your first orienteering assault on Australia in general or ACT in particular at the Oceania champs - and do you fall in to a demographic not normally catered for by squads or training camps? 2) Can you suggest an area in the North Island with the most relevant terrain to prepare for the Oceania champs? (Whanawhana stands out, but unfortunately I doubt Hawkes Bay would be encouraging any visits there before Labour Weekend!) 3) Are you interested in providing a weekend's coaching to... ahh, me at least, but maybe a small group of people that question 1 applies to, somewhere in the North Island, sometime in August or September? Let's see if this develops any further... BTW if you haven't got flights yet and you have to be on a tight schedule, I'd suggest getting on to it now, the internals in Oz are getting pricey.   Michael Posted: 15 July 2007, 1:39 PM   Woops overlooked this thread in the traffic of last week. I don't think there is anywhere nearly as good as going to Oz early. Nevertheless we groovies and wellies at least should get together over some maps.   onemanfanclub Posted: 28 July 2007, 7:22 AM   Cross-pollinating topics, Paul suggested that as well as all that experience floating round out there of Swedish terrain and mapping being collated and published together for the benefit of anyone making their 1st O-ringen assault, it would be good to see some thoughts from those experienced in Ozzie terrain in the lead up to the Oceania champs. I fully agree, but would add that the first stop for Paul, myself and anyone else in the same boat should be: http://www.hannyallston.com/index.php?id=63   Paul I Posted: 28 July 2007, 7:29 AM   ...spoken passionately by hanny's #1 fan. Nicely spotted.   Don Posted: 31 July 2007, 6:24 AM   I'm a definite yes for question 1. Keen to join any training but my weekends are often used for work or kid's stuff. 2 others from the Naki in the team also. Thats a great site Hanny has. I'll definitely have to imprint her ten tips to granite orienteering into the grey matter. If only it was easy to remember those things when the race is on. The rest of the site has good interest too.   onemanfanclub Posted: 1 August 2007, 12:51 AM   The OHV contingent had their first map session this week. I definitely feel the better for having "navigated-in-theory" around a course on a relevent map, with 4 or 5 others, some with Oz-experience, some without, to bounce ideas off, and Hanny's notes in mind (don't treat them as gospel though, there will be times when rules will need to be broken). Can fully recommend this sort of gathering as a next best thing to somebody discovering a belt of granite under unmanaged eucalypt somewhere in the middle of the North Island. Just hoping what works on paper also works in the forest. Note that that was the first session. More to come before the end of September!