NEWS/UPDATES - Oceania 2017

Message to all High School/Secondary School Students entered at Rotorua Sprint 20 Apr 2017.

All Australian and New Zealand Secondary School / High School students even if not in an official Team have been placed in unofficial teams for a mixed Sprint Relay commencing at 9:00am. Please attend a briefing at 8:45am and disregard your published start time.

Middle Earth Sprint on Thursday 20 Apr 2017 – Update

Important announcement regarding Middle Earth Sprint on Thursday. Due to the recent weather events, several areas of our map (along the lake front) are under water or have changed significantly since we printed our maps. Despite our prayers to the lake god, we have decided this is unlikely to clear before Thursday. Runners should be prepared to get wet. We will have large amounts of signage regarding this at the start, and will use tape to demonstrate any areas which are unsafe to go through.

Cyclone Cook – Severe Weather Warning

At 6pm on 13 April – The MetService has update the weather forecast for Thursday, Friday & Saturday as follows;

This is a much more benign forecast than previously expected.

The Oceania Orienteering Championship Organisers reiterate their prior guidance as detailed in our prior post below.

Dress appropriate to the conditions and forecast, for your run and before & after.
The ground at the Long, Relay & Middle venues will be sodden and car parking will be a challenge. Be prepared for delays and maybe even to be towed.
Ensure you check the Hazard Notices at every event ‘before’ your run.

At 9:12am on 13 April The New Zealand Metrological Service issued a Severe Weather Warning; http://www.metservice.com/warnings/severe-weather-warnings

The most relevant part to the Oceania Championship is the Heavy Rain Warning issued for Auckland as follows;

“AREA/S AFFECTED Auckland, including Great Barrier Island FORECAST

Further heavy rain is expected today, especially in the east of the region. In the 12 hours from 9am to 9pm today, 60 to 80mm of rain may accumulate, but Great Barrier Island could get 70 to 100mm, in addition to what has already fallen. The heaviest falls are expected from around 3pm when rainfall rates could reach 30 to 40mm per hour with thunderstorms possible.”

Our advice to competitors is as follows;

As always it is each competitor’s responsibility to source and heed weather warnings as they see fit.

At this stage (9:00am Thursday 13^th April) the organisers do not intend to cancel, delay or defer any of the Oceania Orienteering Championship events.
We anticipate that the sprint will be run in wet and possibly windy weather. Please dress appropriately and bring a set of warm clothes and rain proof gear for before & after your run.
The weather is expected to be clearing over the three days from the long onwards.
If the wind and rain has created specific hazards at any of the venues these will be listed on the hazard notice boards at each event. Please make it your responsibility to read these.
Parking at the Long, Relay & Middle events is all on grass in paddocks which may still be wet and will cut up. Coming in will be easy, getting out may be harder.
If you have access to a four wheel drive vehicle come in that in preference to two wheel drive.
Carpool with friends to reduce the number of vehicles we need to park.
Arrive early as we may not be able to access the parking paddocks and being the last car in a roadside parking line of 500 cars will give you a long walk. (500 times 6m = 3km)
Expect to be delayed leaving
Bring a mountain bike. This will allow you to park on the road side and travel in style to the arena.
Please refer to this website & the metsevice regularly for updates.

REDUCED TRADING HOURS – Easter Weekend

A note to our international visitors that most shops will be closed on Easter Friday 14th April and Easter Sunday 16th April. This includes supermarkets. Petrol stations will be open and some small corner store grocery shops may be open.

SPECIAL NOTICES – MIDDLE EVENT (Monday 17th April)

Due to Recent storm damage from Cyclone Debbie:

Unmapped Slips: Cyclone Debbie delivered torrential rain to the Wairamarama-Brien-Ponganui loop road area last week, resulting in a large number of landslides. The farm shown here with dozens of landslides is on the Wairamarama road, and just north of our map. Fortunately there are only a few small slips on our map according to the farmer. These will not be mapped.
Slip on access road. The main access road to the event (Wairamarama-Brien-Ponganui loop road) is open, but only just. It was closed for 2 days because of a slip on Brien road at the map. The slip has now been cleared. However there are about 6 places where the road is reduced to one lane because of slips onto the road or slips on the downhill side of the road, like this. The road is passable but please drive with caution and allow extra time.
Cyanide bait
Unknown to us until now, Cyanide bait has recently been laid on various farms in the area, with our farmer having no control over its timing. The bait has been laid on the event map and there are warning signs, like this one, placed along the road that we walk to the Start. Some of the bait is in small blue plastic bags nailed to a tree.

EVENT INFORMATION – BULLETIN 2

Updated 7 April 2017 – Amendment to Section 8.10 to clarify embargoed area for Oceania Sprint

Updated 11 April 2017 – Amendments to Registration, Sprint quarantine, Sprint map size, Sprint distance to start, Middle quarantine

See below the image for amendment details

Click on the image to download (2.26mb)

The following Sections in the printed version of Bulletin 2 have been updated.

The latest version of the Bulletin (including amendments below) is on the Oceania website.

5 Registration

Registration will be open from 17:00-19:00 on Thursday 13 April at the Unitec Gymnasium, Building 174 at Unitec. This is between Entry 3 and Entry 4 on Carrington Road, Mt Albert. Parking is via Entry 3 or 4. Coordinates are 36.878876S, 174.710505E. Please note the strictly embargoed area in Section 11 of the Oceania Bulletin.

8.9 and 11.3 Maps (Sprint)

Map size A3 or A4.

8.10 Embargoed areas

The Sprint competition area at Unitec has been embargoed since the venue was notified and continues to be embargoed until the competition is over, except for the areas shown on the map in Section 11. Competitors, team officials and other persons, who through knowledge of the terrain, may influence the results of the competitions, are not permitted to access the embargoed area.

11.4 Start (Sprint)

There is one Start which is a 600m walk from the Event Arena; allow 10 minutes.

11.4 Quarantine (Sprint)

A quarantine for M21E and W21E will operate. The quarantine is located inside the gymnasium (building 1 on the map). This is the same building as the registration and entry to the quarantine is via the same entrance as registration.

Quarantine opens at 11:45am and all M/W21E athletes must be inside quarantine before 12:45pm.

Athletes must report to the exit marshal 15 minutes before their start. At minus-12 minutes they will commence the 450m journey to the pre-start area. The route will be signposted from the gymnasium.

The warm-up area is inside the gymnasium – there is sufficient space in the basketball complex to do so. No spiked shoes are permitted in the gymnasium. Toilets are also available.

A gear return will operate from the quarantine to the finish.

The use of mobile phones, computers or any other communication devices inside the quarantine zone is strictly forbidden. It is not allowed to bring any maps of the competition area into the quarantine zone.