An exciting lead-up and weekend in Kaikoura for our Adventure Racers.

The following newsletter article is written by Tamsin Page and Christina Freeman, two people who the school is very lucky to have supporting our young people in taking up new challenges. 

There are a number of parents involved in making these events happen for our students, and these events have become very special for the students involved. If you’d like to know more about rogaining, orienteering or adventure racing, please contact Briar Dumelow - dml@linwoodcollege.school.nz.

We have a small but growing group of Te Aratai College students getting involved in some local adventure races this year, as well as related Navigation sports events (orienteering and rogaining). Adventure racing involves competing in a team of 2-4 people in races that include multiple disciplines, usually navigation, trekking/running, mountain biking, and sometimes kayaking/rafting/coasteering. Usually, you have the option of entering a 3-hour or 6-hour long event, or sometimes even a 12-hour race. 

Geraldine Adventure Race

On Sunday the 2nd of April, two teams of Te Aratai College adventure racers got up before the birds to drive to the hills just past Geraldine in South Canterbury, for the 2023 Crazy Kea Geraldine Adventure Race. All but one of these students were doing their first-ever adventure race. They were awesome! Team ‘Te Aratai Navigation is Overrated’ competed in the 3-hour event, finishing in just under 3 hours, while the ‘Te Aratai Stampeders’ competed in the 6-hour event, finishing in just under 5 hours in a sprint finish to beat a rival Hagley/Redcliffs team.

Kaikoura Adventure Race and SISS Adventure Racing Champs

In the April school holidays, our two Te Aratai adventure racing teams travelled up to Kaikoura for their second adventure racing experience. The Kaikoura Adventure Race doubles as the South Island Secondary Schools Adventure Racing championships for teams that meet qualifying criteria. This event was a real step up from Geraldine, being a much more challenging format, with trickier navigation, longer distances, and even a short kayaking section. It was a perfect day for the race, although, after weeks of rain there was a LOT of MUD! This just added to the fun and the challenge, and everyone had a great day, pushing their bodies and their boundaries on a great course with some stunning scenery.

The ‘Te Aratai Stampeders’ were competing in the SISS Championship category, in the 6-hour event. They had a fantastic race, coming 4th out of 12 teams, nailing the navigation and collecting full points in a time of 7 hours and 52 minutes. The ‘Te Aratai Navigation is Overrated’ team competed in the non-championship Schools category in the 3-hour event. This team also did super well, collecting all but two checkpoints in 5 hours and 30 minutes. However, this should have been 4 hours and 45 minutes, because this team displayed outstanding manaakitanga, maturity and sportsmanship, by spending 45 minutes of their race time out on the course assisting a junior team to resolve their differences and avoid a mutiny – ka mau te wehi girls!

It was a very impressive showing from the two Te Aratai College Adventure Race teams. This event was held on and around the coast to the south of Kaikoura, finishing at Conway Flat community hall. The weather on the day was thankfully dry, but after a very wet week leading into the event the ground conditions were extremely wet and muddy. Our teams showed incredible skills, courage, grit, determination, maturity, kindness and outstanding teamwork to push through some very trying conditions to the finish. A remarkable effort from both teams.

Congratulations to:

Te Aratai Stampeders – 4th in 6Hr Secondary Schools Intermediate Grade finishing in just under 8 hours with 2800 points.

Lena Norton

Zach Derham

Sam Foote

Farah Langridge

Te Aratai ‘Navigation is Overrated – 8th in 3Hr Secondary Schools Open Grade finishing in 5.5 hours with 1400 points.

Emily Easterbrook

Noa Wilkinson

Sofia Foulkes

Thank you to the Kaikoura Adventure Race crew for a fantastic event and to Andrew Spencer, Jo Fissenden, Biddy Harnett-Getz and Briar Kinney for the fantastic photos.

Thank you to all the parents that made it to Kaikoura to take more photos and to help and support the teams and thank you also to Te Aratai College for believing in us enough to let us get amongst it. The students did Te Aratai College proud on the South Island stage!! Next stop, Crazy Kea Adventure Race in August and Get 2 Go Challenge in September. Bring it on!!

In the lead-up to the events in August and September, students will continue to participate in orienteering and rogaining events based in and around Canterbury. These events are such a great opportunity to step outside of the comfort zone. If you’d like more information about these events before getting in touch, please visit https://wickedrogaines.nz/#about to find out more about the event dates listed below or https://papo.org.nz/papo-events/upcoming-events/ for information about orienteering events.

EVENT 1 - 31st MAY SCARBOROUGH

EVENT 2 - 7th JUNE HANSEN PARK

EVENT 3 - 14th JUNE MCCORMACKS BAY