Opotiki 12 Hour

Team Destination Unknown

The 'usual' crew - Tui and Taryn; rejoined by 'if you love something, set it free' Tilly; and completed by 'new recruit' Laura.  

We may not have known our destinations, but we sure had some adventures getting there!

The first activity was a sprint race to collect a written puzzle, which then had to be completed.  The New Recruit started as we meant for her to continue, utilising that youthful enthusiasm to be back fast with the puzzle.  Then good team organisation meant that we had a number of pencils available and were all able to contribute to the Sudoku.  "The girls have it!" someone shouted, as we handed in our completed work and raced out of the start zone.  First.  On discussion later, it appears Laura was the only one who actually managed to write more than a few numbers in, her hand was flashing and filling boxes like lightning.  We'll add Sudoku to her list of team assets!

After a solid road run our first activity was to find 7 letters in a maze of tracks in a private garden.  It took a few minutes to work out that some letters were repeated and make sure we had them all, but we split, then rejoined and stayed together fairly efficiently to move off with all 7.

L  P  O  D  N  H  I  - Can you work it out?  While running and navigating?  :) 

 Trek one we settled into solid Nav - putting the time into getting a good compass bearing and making sure we were hitting the right gullies and ridges in a fairly nondescript area.  We weren't moving fast but were consistently moving in the right direction.  Taryn and Laura slid down a 30m bank on their bums to pick up CPs with a considerable amount of speed if not stealth due to all the squealing.  CP16 to CP17 was the silly nav mistake of the day - not taking a compass bearing and searching for 25 mins in the wrong area of bush. 

Stage 2 MTB had the excitement of rifle shooting - that always adds to the atmosphere!  From CP4 we followed a clear trail, knowing we were heading towards the road we could see in the distance.  Mistake #2 - I didn't take a bearing again, and wasn't sure which ridgeline we were going down.  This became a major as CP5 was actually set on the back of a gate, presuming we would be on the track, rather than coming up the road.  15 minutes of cycling up and down the road and we realised we WERE where we thought we were - and the CP was on the back of the gate we'd checked twice already. 

The second part of the MTB was a beefy climb, gut wrenching.  Some fabulous views over the moody coast with patches of sun on the green hills was tempered by a chilly wind.  After the long hard slog, was the long hard slog along the gas line, rough as guts, overgrown, pushing our bikes and sometimes having to carry them.  Tilly's legs were obviously still cycle strong even though she's been under an injury cloud, and Laura was able to share some strength to keep the team rolling through.  After this was a glorious farm downhill - the sort that makes you smile.

 A quick swap into running shoes and the remote trek was underway through the pine forest.   Some quick estimations and we decided to still keep collecting all checkpoints even though we might run out of time for the later ones.  Laura and I tackled the scramble down the hill from CP7 to 8 - heading off on a different compass bearing to most of the footprints we could see, and picking up the CP on the first pass.  I'm loving the new thumb compass for taking a proper bearing!

After another hour walking knee deep in a cold stream, we hit transition right on dark, all starting to get cold.  Racing downhill towards Ohiwa, the dark seemed to amplify the speed and I was nervous we'd miss CPS but picked them up with a minimum of fuss.  Maximum speed of 51km hr, at some stage we heard an immense snarl rush out at us from the left, as a large dog lunged out at Tilly in the lead then had a good snap at my wheel as we blurred past.  With visions of Laura on my rear wheel going over the handlebars and then being mauled, I was pretty relieved that all four of us were through unscathed. 

 Yes, that was one of the last 4 maps.  No scale, no contours, no markings, just good old Google Earth Satellite pictures.  Highlight of my day - we nailed it!  Solid movement, great hunting, picking up those faint landmarks and clear on compass bearings.  Not fast, but not lost!!  Laura sang us a little song about not being able to feel her cold feet, Taryn seemed to be gaining energy rather than losing it, and Tilly was thinking on her feet, suggesting with time running short we did all of this trek and skipped the next rather than transition twice more and waste time.

The marshall was still full of good grace although it was 7:30 and freezing, she shared her potato chips and sent us on our merry way, deciding we had time to for a small detour to pickup the final MTB checkpoints.  I asked the girls how long it would take us to get back, Tilly reckoned 15 mins, which I quietly thought was a bit ambitious..... but as we entered the transition to the final trek, I couldn't resist heading out for just one CP that I could see on the map, only a couple of minutes from the transition.

Back on the bikes and it was like a Tour de France Peleton - we were pumping back to the finish line.  Thirteen minutes - full credit to Tilly on that one!!

Learning
*Always take a bearing!
*Keep spare socks in your pack
*Do the maths of the time penalties - I think we could have cleared the last trek and lost less points than we gained.
*Ask how time penalties for mystery activities work - it might make the difference

One of my favourite races ever.  Nice variety in terrain and stages.  Challenging, tough, but not demoralising.  Not a lot of route choices, but enough navigation involved to add that mental dimension.  (Surprisingly, having four of us on maps went really smoothly and everyone was able to contribute positively at various stages.)  Mostly - this was a great team.  Bloody hardworking, determined, tough chicks; but out to enjoy the adventure and explore.  Teamwork A+.

PS - Surprised but pleased to get 1st - the results show we were the only women's 4; when we'd been passed early by four strong ladies and didn't manage to catch them again.  They showed in the results in the women's 3 person teams, and somehow we'd managed to get ahead by just a single checkpoint.