Wow! That was quite some night. Beautiful weather, a public holiday and a great map combined to bring everyone out. There were 278 ecards entered into the system and with quite often 2 or 3 people going out with one e card that was a lot of people in what is officially only a 75 minute start window. Thank you for your patience if you were one of those who arrived in the peak of business and had to queue for a while, twice, because of the last minute decision to use electronic timing at this rather special venue. We were delighted at the number of card owners who somehow managed to get the message which only went out 24 hours earlier that e cards would be used. It certainly speeds up the registration procedure. Thanks to Molly McGowan for the courses, and to Alina for controlling. Thanks also to the many club members who arrived to find a buzz of activity and stepped in to help the new comers get through the system. It could not have worked without your help.

Next week we are in Blockhouse Bay but at a different start venue to usual. We will be starting from the Blockhouse Bay Reserve off Terry St, starting from by the car park off Terry St. A lot of work has gone into mapping the detail in a series of schools in this area to offer you something a bit different from the usual events in this area. We look forward to seeing you there (you will not need SI cards for this event but you will for the event in 2 weeks time at Cornwall park as course 1 and 2 will incorporate a micro).

Advance notice for beginners. For those of you who have not yet tried forest/farm orienteering we will be holding 3 brief (10 minutes) coaching sessions at 7 pm at the end of SummerNav events to help you with a few of the things you need to know to move out of the parks into the forest. The first will be at Cornwall Park on the 18^th Feb describing how to interpret the contours on your map. The second will be at the Auckland Domain (26^th Feb) on how to keep your map orientated and use a compass and the third at Mangere Centre Park (5^th March), on how to plan your route. We will have sheets up at the Summernav events for you to sign up to attend these sessions, to give us an idea of interest and therefore numbers of coaches needed.