OLD BUT IMPORTANT NEWS

2011 Youthtown Get2Go Grand Final

The final week of Term 4 last year saw the running of the 6th Get2Go Challenge national final at our Great Barrier Island centre. The 12 top year 9&10 adventure racing teams representing schools from the length and breadth of the country made the journey to the island to decide once and for all who would be the best of the best for 2011. Five long days of challenges on both land and sea awaited the teams, each requiring a mix of outdoor skills and strong teamwork. The final is best described as mix between The Amazing Race, Survivor and Treasure Island and the teams of 8 students, each with 4 boys and 4 girls need to be very well prepared, physically and mentally in order to lift the massive Get2Go trophy at the end of the week. Despite many strong performances throughout the week the final was dominated by the consistency of the combined team from Whangarei Boys and Girls High Schools. A big thank you to our sponsors Youthtown and Fullers Ferries for enabling us to make the event such a success.

2011 Get2Go Champions – Whangarei Boys/Girls High

Final Overall placing –

WHAT’S COMING UP

During the week 14-18 May we be holding the 12th Genesis Energy Hillary Challenge at our Tongariro mountain centre. This event is the ‘big one’, arguably the toughest, most demanding sporting competition there is between New Zealand secondary schools. The five day challenge is exclusively for year 12/13 students and is the ultimate test of outdoor skill, endurance, mental toughness and teamwork. The final has a limited space for only the 11 best teams from schools across the country, who will be joined by last years Hillary Challenge Australia champions – Haileybury College from Melbourne. The top 5 schools from the 2011 New Zealand Final – New Plymouth Boys/Girls High, Opunake High, Cambridge High, Whangarei Boys/Girls High and Middleton Grange have received the automatic selection for this year’s final and are fighting fit and ready for action. The remaining 6 teams that qualified through the special qualification event held in September last year are – Taradale High, Thames High, Hamilton Boys/Girls High, Auckland Grammar/St Cuthberts, Onslow College and Takapuna Grammar.

This year’s final is sure to be another epic contest and any one of the 12 teams could make the podium at the end a long week of challenges, including a 20hr long rogaine expedition and 60km multisport race.

Stay tuned to our Facebook page – facebook.com/opcnz for updates and photos throughout the week.

The 2012 NavQuest series is all set to kick off in just over a month’s time. This year we will be holding four events around the North Island in May and June. The NavQuest is a short, sharp, 3hr long team adventure. Kind of a cross between orienteering and rogaining, the challenge is to work with your team mates to get to as many checkpoints as possible within the time limit. Don’t worry we give you a specially prepared, highly detailed map with all of the checkpoints marked on it, so all you need is a bit of navigation skill and you are away. Even if you don’t, you will still have a cool time running around in circles getting lost for 3hrs. Seriously it’s not that hard and the events are great fun! The NavQuest is actually open to anyone, there is a secondary school category and an open category so your parents, friends and teachers can also take on the challenge. Oh yeah, we also give away a heap of cool spot prizes at each event. So what are you waiting for, get your team together and enter today. Entry information can be found here – http://www.opc.org.nz/navquest/

The planning is well underway for the 12 round regional Get2Go series    which will run across the country during July/August/September. Last year we had nearly 1500 year 9&10 students take part across the country and this year we are hoping to build it up so we get close to 2000. The Get2Go events are organised by OPC but couldn’t happen without the generous support of the clubs and organisations around the country who volunteer their time to come along an set up all of the cool challenges that teams get to do. The day of action includes groovy challenges such as rock climbing, kayaking, orienteering and mountain biking and is open to all year 9&10 students. Here is the link to the registration form - http://www.opc.org.nz/get2go/

Our amazing event sponsors and supporters–

 We are very fortunate to have the support from a fantastic group of sponsors and supporters of our event programme. These are all organisations who are keen to see the ongoing development of youth adventure racing and outdoor education in general. Like us they see the incredible outcomes and growth, on both a personal and social (team) level, that adventure based outdoor events can provide. Please support them where ever you can.

 Genesis Energy, Youthtown, Fullers Ferries, Bivouac Outdoor, Lactic Turkey events, Total Sport events, Buff Headwear, ARC events, Chateau Tongariro, Cactus Climbing

“The opportunity to provide young people with the experience of being out on the water and travelling by ferry to some of the best island destinations in the Hauraki Gulf is incredibly important to us at Fullers. Many young people in our region have never been out on the harbour so this is a truly memorable experience for them.” Delyth Morgan-Coghlan, Marketing & Business Development Manager Fullers www.fullers.co.nz

‘Bivouac Outdoor is committed to adventure and proud to continue its long standing relationship with OPC, supporting the Hillary Challenge, Get2Go and NavQuest events.  In doing so Bivouac is helping promote respect and enjoyment of the outdoors for young New Zealanders. Bivouac Outdoor is the Official Retail Partner of The Sir Edmund Hillary Outdoor Pursuits Centre of New Zealand.’ Andrew Powell, National Marketing Manager, Bivouac  http://www.bivouac.co.nz