Our Indian summer continued tonight with another lovely evening to run around the delightful Self’s farm. We are most grateful to Mr Self for allowing us to use his farm for this event. It is a working farm so we are very appreciative of him sharing this little gem in the middle of Auckland with us. Thanks also to Luca Eastwood and Guy Cory-Wright who were responsible for tonight’s courses which were very much enjoyed. A few people unfortunately got wasp stings – we do hope that the discomfort is short lived. The wasps must have got disturbed after a few runners had gone by – they had not appeared during any of the visits to check out the map or when the controls were put out so we were unaware of the nest until a competitor reported it well into the evening. As we used Sport ident tonight the results are a little different and you can click on the splits link to see the individual leg times everyone took and see where you were fast or slow compared to others.

Next week is the FINAL event for SummerNav 2018-2019. I am not sure where the time has gone since we were welcoming everyone to the first event of the season back at the end of October last year! The event next week will be on WEDNESDAY, 20^th March at Auckland Domain, starting from Titoki St, around the back of the Museum. For those of you ready for a little bit more of a challenge (and practice for the Nationals) the course setter has planned you a contours-only course as well as the usual courses – you may like to bring your compass! As the nights are fast closing in and some of the controls for the longer course will be through the bush where it gets dark very early you may like to try to not be too late starting. We will need to start getting the bush controls in quite early. It was pitch dark by the time the control collectors got back tonight, making it quite a challenge!

There is also an event on this Sunday (17^th), organised by the Counties Manukau O club, in Waiuku forest, signposted from Waiuku. Starts will be between 10.00am and 12.30.  This will be the first of the Auckland Orienteering Series (AOS) events for the year as the one we were organising 2 weeks ago had to be postponed due to fire risk. Watch the website for its new date. All the AOS events throughout the year have 9 courses so there is a course for all levels of experience and fitness – If you have not given forest orienteering a try now is the time!!