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The fourth TrustPower Adventure Quest enjoyed beautiful hot sunny conditions
on Sat 30th for the event set in the Arrowtown suburbs and surrounding
hills
Competitors from around the lower South Island including Christchurch,
Dunedin and Southland were joined by visitors from Te Puke, Wellington and
Blenheim, to solve the clues and find the tags.
A record field of 80 teams of two experienced great sunny racing conditions
with the rain forecast holding off until the last teams were home.
Competitors returned to the HQ in Buckingham Green with smiles on their
faces and exciting tales to tell. A few teams were baffled by where the
exact location of a few cryptic clues, and the occasional clue that had
'gone missing' or faded out.
The TrustPower Adventure Quest tasked teams to head out in to the hills of
Arrowtown in search of orienteering adventure clues on foot and mountain
bike. Teams were allowed 6 hours to complete the course and collect as many
clues as possible.
On foot, the course covered Bush Creek, Big Hill Area and Sawpit Gully. By
bike competitors travelled around the town of Arrowtown and around the Arrow
River Gorge including a climb up Tobins Track onto the Crown Terrace.
Final results were dependent on teams arriving back in to HQ before the 6
hour deadline when points were deducted for late arrival. Many returned with
just seconds to spare.
Team 'The Dips', Chris Stewart and Andy Taylor from Dipton (74 points) had a
clear win from Team Sky City, Neil Wakefield and Tom Lucas from Queenstown
(68 points) in the open adventure field.
When asked what was the secret to the win Stewart would not elaborate except
to say that their experience from last year assisted in some of the route
finding decisions during the day. Both the these teams were sent on the
biking section and completed the trekking stage second.
First Adventure female team for the second year in a row went to Two Wise
Chicks, Sarah Lei and Jackie Hamilton from Cromwell collecting one more
point than last years effort (50 points). Dunedin team Anderson Lloyd
Caudwell, Eva Deans and Annabel Ritchie collected 39 clues in the allotted
time to take second place in this division.
In the Adventure mixed section team Looking for Paul, Mary Jowett and
Peter Bennetts from Queenstown collected 64 points to take first place and
4th overall. Two points behind them in second place was Team Kapa Design
Gallery, Malcolm McLeod and Melanie Smith from Alexandra and Arrowtown.
For the Social categories the Tony Lepper and Alex Christie team, (Alexandra and
Wanaka) came first in the open division collecting 49 points, Team Battered
Ibugu, Tim McBride and John Wikstrom came a very close second with 48 points
collected. Remarkable Physios (Queenstown) also collected 49 points in
winning first place in the social mixed category but were beaten on time
from winning overall. Team Hot OT's, Sarah Spence and Fiona Taylor, took
first for the social female section with 43 points collected.
Competitor and local Queenstown lawyer Tom Pryde, was heard to comment 'Up on
the top of German Hill (above Arrowtown) we could see teams moving between
checkpoints, all going in different directions spread all over the hill
sides. It was amazing fun.'
Race director Geoff Hunt was pleased with the turn out of competitors; "It
is encouraging to see competitors with varying levels of fitness and
experience compete. By far the majority of the teams entered the social division.
People are keen to get out there, have some fun whilst enjoying the beautiful
scenery and doing some physical exercise."
Competitors in the more serious side of the sport can now look forward to
some of the same experience as one stage of the 24hours of the Southern
Traverse, to be held on the 4th of November, is a orienteering stage.
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