Orienteering (in the forest!)

A few weekends ago, Katie introduced me to the world of forest orienteering at Weiti, which is a forest next to the beach (north of Auckland somewhere). Some of the words that come to mind - exciting, tiring, frustrating, satisfying...
For those of you who don't know much about orienteering, you are given a map of the area with a bunch of control points marked on it. Using the map along with a compass you have to try and visit the control points in order as quickly as possible.

All up, it took me just over 2 hours to complete a 2 km course (although I probably ended up running 5 or 6 by the end of it!). This was largely in part to me spending over 1 hour (!) looking for a single control point. Luckily I ran into Sandra, Katie's friend, who was able to point me back into the right direction!

You can see me in the background running into the finish :)

At the end of the race Katie and I hung out with some of the other kids on the beach.