Last Wednesday morning, the 13th of June, East Taieri Year 5 & 6 Orienteerers set off for the Dunedin Botanic Gardens to take part in the T.S.S.A Orienteering.

We met Elm Grove and Silverstream at the Bandstand where we were given our instructions. We were told that we had an hour and that if we weren’t back by 11:30am we would start to lose points. We had 10 clues to answer.

After being given our clipboard with the clues, we had a team talk and then raced off to find the answers. We headed across the bridge first. I wondered whether there was a grumpy old troll under it. Ducks swam up and down the creek below us.

Sprinting up the hill towards the Mediterranean Garden, I was the last person in the group. My legs started to burn as I rushed after the others. I could hear my group huffing and puffing. “My legs are sore. Slow down!” I called out

When we finally got to the garden we quickly found the fountain. Our clue instructed us to count all the tiles above the waterline. We counted 90.

Another clue directed us towards the aviary. We ran like the wind and eventually found it. At the aviary we had to name the three cockatoos. There names were Sid, Fonzie and Cookie. Colourful parrots squawked, hung upside down, fought and called out to us. I said to Sid the cockatoo “Want a cup of tea?”

“Want a cup of tea?” he squawked back.

The hour went really quickly and soon we were racing back down the hill. We only had 2 minutes to spare. When were running across the bridge we managed to lose our parent. She was busy using Siri on her phone to help her back down.

We think we did really well because we only had one clue that we couldn’t find. The orienteering day was great. We had an amazing morning.

By Kayla, Chelsea and Miss Agnew