This years trip is now underway, the last few weeks and then days were a bit hectic, getting everything sorted and moving house…. Not to mention the weather with some of the worst flooding in years plus a bit of snow and sleet to make it interesting. It was all a little bit disappointing to be heading away from Christchurch on a nice sunny morning! Anyway….

First stop is Helsinki in Finland, then in the coming days I head up to Vuokatti for the World Orienteering Champs. After WOC I have a week or so to travel through the top of Finland and Sweden for a weeks of the worlds biggest orienteering event, Oringen (~15,000 competitors). Once Oringen finishes I head down to Stockholm and on to Colombia in South America for the World Games. After the 3 races at the world games I have a few days for a look around Colombia before heading back to Stockholm in Sweden. From there my plans are a bit fluid at the moment, and I can go a visit some friends in Sweden, family in the Netherlands and head to a wedding in the Czech Republic. I then have a training camp in Italy ahead of the World Mountain Running Champs. From Italy it’s a short flight to Poland for the actual race. After the WMRC I begin my trip back home, with a detour to San Francisco where I will meet Riki (my brother) to see the finals of the Americas Cup which just happen to coincide nicely. Once that’s all done and dusted we head home and back to New Zealand!

So the essential details:
World Orienteering Champs, Finland, 6-14th of July
World Games – Orienteering, Colombia, 1-5th of August
World Mountain Running Champs, Poland, 9th September

Thanks to Bivouac Outdoor, Athletics Canterbury, Sumner Running Club, Peninsula and Plains Orienteering Club, and Tait Communications for supporting me along the way and helping to make this trip possible!