IT Consultancy and Adventure Racing

Otaki forks played host to a race that had a heavy expedition theme. Shane is trying to get Destination Unknown off the ground, the course was set by securify.co.nz and was being used as a fund raiser for their XPD campaign, while Dave Hicks and I were using the race as a taster for how we would work together in our own attack on XPD as half of team 4TC.

Arriving (just) before the briefing, we soon found out that there would be 3 legs, an opening any order orienteering section after which we would receive details of the following MTB ride to a remote transition and then a big walk through private property back to Otaki forks.

Unfortunately the first leg was heavily modified from the intended river run as the Otaki was up, so we started by running across the river, and straight up the other side onto a terrace, where we soon realised that it was the wrong terrace!

Back into the river and closer to our CPs, Dave realised they were on top of a cliff above us, so we elected to head further up river and return to base via the CP that was actually currently closest to us.

Up onto the plateau and we made it to the CP in a hut in a reasonable amount of company, where Dave discovered that I take the 'boy look' to new heights of incompetence before we headed off at a good lick to collect the 2nd of 4.

Onto the track home and we ran straight past CP3, picking up number 4 and then backtracking to join Rachel and Glenn searching for and eventually locating 3 before a fun, fast descent and back across the river to home.

Marking up the rest of the maps and then heading out, we rode along the access road, overtaking a school team who then came back past after we took an unnecessary detour that I thought looked nice, doh!

Back onto the sensible route and we crossed the river and headed into some very steep farmland, almost catching the school team again before the next CP.

Picking our way through the abandoned vehicles we slipped and slid our way past the school kids.

Along the ridge, somewhere in amongst the mud and the bogs we caught the other 3 teams that had been more efficient orienteers, and despite trying to destroy my bike computer, managed to keep pretty aware of our location, apparently choosing the better of the 2 options down into the valley at the mid point of the ride. There were trees down all over the track, and the recent rain had made the going slightly treacherous, which all added to the fun ;-)

We headed out towards Waikanae, picking up a few checkpoints along the way, and then after a manned CP at the bridge, where we were informed that we were leading the 24 hour race (there was a 6 hour being run simultaneously), we turned back East away from the coast.

Dave set a great pace back to the farm where we would head off road again, with me just sitting in his draft and ticking the kilometres off. A bit of faffing finding the next control was followed by an uphill trudge that culminated with a conversation with 'da wombles' at the top.

A bit of farmland riding was interspersed with a few compass checks and then some traversing round to the right track as I briefly misplaced us on the map, and then it was over the top again, and a fun descent on a decent pylon access track back to the road and the tramp TA.

A reasonably quick transition included setting up a GPS tracker so that we could look back on the route (which was quite interesting for post race analysis, and worked flawlessly even when under reasonable tree cover, go the Garmin Forerunner 305).

Eating our way out of transition, we retraced the end of our bike leg and were pleased to note that we didn't see anyone, meaning at least a 45 minute lead, but this didn't stop us from breaking into a trot as the food went down and the incline allowed.

The incline didn't allow for long, as it soon started climbing, and after faffing a little at the first couple of CPs, we came to the end of the 4WD track and spotted a track ducking off into the bush. Given we were now looking for an unmapped ridge track, and we had 2 options, we noted this and explored further on the track we were on.

The bearing looked good for a while before turning hard right and petering out, so we headed back and took the other option. We soon had this choice validated by finding the next CP, and as darkness approached we headed up the ridge carefully trying to maintain our position on the map.

Progress was good, and whenever we started heading off the ridge we quickly checked our position and got back on track-working really well together, especially given that this was our first time trying to do any nav as a team.

With night falling we approached the next CP which was on a high point, so a short period of madness had us 'chasing high points' as we maintained a generally southerly direction and kept seeing slight rises in front.

After the frustration of hitting about a dozen crests none of which held the magic piece of hazard tape, it was properly night, so we regrouped.

It was obvious that we were now above the point we wanted, and that the CP was actually slightly off the main ridge to the east, so we decided to go back and look for it. A slightly more methodical search on descent saw us revisiting a few familiar spots, and one unfamiliar one - the control ;-)

Turning around once more, we headed up and up, repassing our last stopping point having taken about an hour to get that control-ho hum!

Up and up, we should have been approaching the next control where we expected to see Jo and Chris when we spotted an eerie glow hanging in the trees. A cheery welcome followed by the firing up of a boiler made us realise that we were at the CP, and that there were glow sticks in the trees to mark the spot. A brief chat and some hot water and we headed off towards Pukeatua.

Having just been told that there was a reasoanble track between here and the summit of Pukeatua, and then route finding got more difficult from the peak, we promptly lost the track and got a bit worried about how bad the next section would be.

Careful progress got us to the summit, then as we tried to head off a quick bearing check showed us heading in exactly the wrong direction. The weather had clagged in by now, so long range visibility was non existent as the torch light bounced back off the mist, so we took the time to add layers before the methodical search for the way off the top began.

Looking back at the GPS track later, we walked past the exit point 4 times before we found it and headed back into the relative warmth of the bush, but from there it was pretty plain sailing, following a track outline down through a couple of CPs till we were up above Otaki forks again.

I was happy that the route straight down was shallow enough to be manageable, so we headed off on 'route 1', almost immediately coming across a track that we jogged down till it hit a bigger track. Coming across a CP on a track bend caused some confusion, and even though we decided it must be for the 6 hour race, we took a photo of it anyway.

Out onto the access road, and we had a total brain fade, agreeing that where we were was unfamiliar, and completely ignoring the map in front of us, we proceeded to take over half an hour to complete the 500 metres to the TA!

We had reached what was supposed to be the half way point of the trek, but feeling that we'd had a good workout, and didn't need to kill ourselves ahead of a team training weekend, decided to call it a day rather than heading out into the worsening weather.

So we said our thanks to Shane and Colin for organising a thoroughly enjoyable day out, and headed for Wellington and a much more comfortable night than had been planned!