A Sample of the Orienteering Maps

The Start of my long distance course, my route in purple.

Auckland Champs

Last weekend, PK and I cruised up to Akld for the Auckland Orienteering Champs held in Woodhill forest. Stayed with Brent on the way in Rotorua. There was a middle distance first up in which Penny and I both finished 2nd which was a good result. After this we cruised up to Rob Gardens place on South Head and played tennis, went kayaking etc. Good times. Sunday was a long distance event on some real awesome terrain, firstly native bush previously used for NZ's only World Cup in 1994 and then some real nice tricky Woodhill sanddunes...reminded me what I like about orienteering!! Unfortunately we had a bad day, Penny mispunched and I tired towards the end..then the long journey home

Taupo Squad Weekend

Hey, this weekend just being I was down in Taupo running an orienteering squad weekend. Good to get people together. We did some good runs around the local tracks. Taupo is one of those visionary areas that has really developed its local track network to cater for runners/mtbers and other users. Its fantastic, and you always end up running past Huka falls at some stage. Photo is of me and Bryn Davies and Piret Klade at the Craters of the Moon volcanic site. Penny spent the weekend in Gizzy partying with the Doctors, hopefully she might have some stories to tell.

Jamies week in Vegas

Not as exciting as it sounds...Penny went away tramping for the week down south so I popped over to Rotovegas to do some event organising. Supported Rachel Smith at the Coromandel Classic multisport race first up and caught up with a few people I hadn't seen for a while which was good, then headed down to Rotorua, checked out some areas, spoke to lots of landowners and generally made a nuisance of myself. Highlight was probably a bit of wood falling off a rimu tree and hitting me in the head as a I walked along...ended up getting a few stitches in Taupo medical centre. Also went for a nice drive with Simon Addison to the West Coast of the North Island, Kawhia, Taharoa (where they sand mine) and back via Waitomo. Taharoa was our main destination as we had spotted a likely looking orienteering area. Unfirtunately it was indeed fantastic but was in the process of being felled (this is a horrible experience for an orienteer). I will convince Penny to post a report of her expedition which will be much more interesting!

A bit of catch up - Coromandel

Yeah haven't done heaps of posting recently, so thought I would recount a little mission we did earlier in the year. Penny and I and her workmate Max (who coincidentally went to school with Gemma) cruised up to the Coromandel and met up with Megan and Fred. Highlights on the trip up were playing guitar and impovised singing (at the time I only knew A, C, D and G) and exploring Ohiwa estuary at dusk, with a stingray flapping in the sunset. We arrived late to Tairua but found Megan and Fred, and had a nice weekend sifting around Cathedral Cove etc and a lovely run up in the hills somewhere...awesome part of the country. One memorable moment was Fred standing on top of a watertank with the guitar giving us an impromtu performance...brilliant.

Tough Gal

Penny is the new Tough Gal!

At the weekend we competed in the Tough Guy and Gal running race near Rotorua. It is an extreme cross-country race with swamps up to your waist, steep up hills and downhills and army style obstacles. Penny was 1st Woman and I was second man. It was a real fun day and some of our orienteering friends came down as well which was cool. On Saturday we went for another really nice run in the forest out the back of Rotorua, awesome training.I'm half keen to live there, but Penny isn't so convinced. Photos are of the aftermath of the Tough Guy and Penny receiving her prize.

Jamies projects

Have been meaning to give an update on what I've been up to for the last few months...I have officially given up on getting a real job in this cursed place!:-) So am trying to develop an events management business mainly for the challenge of it and the joy of seeing people get out there, rather than making mega bucks...although the hope is it may become a good revenue stream in the future

We have recently established a website for the business www.madeventz.co.nz with the main project at the moment being the Kiwi Summer Adventure Racing Series. I am also trying to set up a youth adventure racing team which is there as well and working on a running event around Lake Waikaremoana.

I have also been spending far too much time doing orienteering stuff, including providing ideas for the development of www.maptalk.co.nz New Zealand's orienteering site where we have recently created a great photo database where you can find and download photos of Penny, me and all the other top NZ orienteers.

And I guess my other project is the Kiwi Adventure Project, a website that I am trying to co-ordinate the creation of which will act as an online guidebook for all NZ outdoor activities. Hard to explain, will post more when we develop a version that speaks for itself...

And I'm slowly learning to play the guitar...