Extreme Sport

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New Zealand has produced a reasonably large percentage of the world's best adventure racers, including Steve Gurney, Kathy Lynch, Nathan Fa'aave, Keith Murray, John Howard, and Jill Westenra to name but a few.

This year, particularly in October and November, we are hosting an equally large percentage of the world's top adventure events.

Adventure races, also known as multisport events, combine many different sports – from orienteering, kayaking, mountain running, mountain biking, and road cycling to horse riding, rafting, abseiling, rollerblading, and camel-riding.

They range in length from a few hours to several days, and involve individuals or teams. In the longer events, competitors often race around the clock, grabbing a few minutes' sleep when they can – producing hallucinations and other sleep deprivation challenges.

Adventure racing has grown in popularity and appeal since 1982, when Robyn Judkins sent a few brave souls on the first race from Kumara on the West Coast of the South Island to Sumner Beach on the East. The Coast to Coast now attracts over 1,000 competitors each year for its 1-day and 2-day events.

The first Raid Gaulous 5-day race was held here in 1989.

Adventure racing is tough on the body and on the mind. Competitors need to develop a wide range of outdoor and mountain safety and survival skills, a high level of fitness, in-depth knowledge of their food and hydration needs and of first aid, the ability to deal with the effects of sleep deprivation, and advanced decision-making and teamwork skills.

These are just a few of the more famous adventure races:

Southern Traverse
www.southerntravese.com
9 – 18 November 2001
The Traverse is for teams of four including at least one member of each sex, over 5+ days and nights (five days for the winners, longer for the also-rans). The course remains secret until the day of the race, but this year is based in Otago in the South Island, and will be between 400–450 kilometres long. Skills needed include orienteering, kayaking, mountain biking, mountain survival skills, abseiling, rafting, mountaineering, and fixed ropes. See their website for race tips, training schedules, and some beautiful photography.

Ecochallenge
www.ecochallenge.com
21 October – 2 November 2001
Mixed teams of four race non-stop for up to 12 days in this event, which is held in a different country each year. Like the Traverse, the first team to cross the finish line together wins. Last year the Ecochallenge was held in Sabah, Malasian Borneo, and in other years competitors have trekked across Argentina, Morocco, and Australia. This year it is scheduled for somewhere in the South Island of New Zealand and the disciplines include mountain biking, river rafting, horseback riding, mountaineering, and fixed ropes. Its website has material on each discipline, and on each host country.

Wild Places Challenge
www.nzwildplaces.com
November 2001
This is the first time this 28-day multisport race (also known as Mizone Endurazone) has been held. Like the Xerox Challenge a few years ago the course runs the length of the country, starting at Bluff on 28 November. Competitors race to the top of the North Island on mountain bikes, running, road cycling, white water and sea kayaking, and rafting.

Motu Challenge
www.motuchallenge.co.nz
13 October 2001
The second largest event in New Zealand, the Motu attracts over 500 competitors to Opotiki each year for a four-stage race which includes mountainbiking, kayaking, running, and road cycling over 162km.

Outdoor Education – what is it, and for what purpose?
This article discusses outdoor education in New Zealand. It stresses the importance of offering frequent outdoor learning experiences and making the most of opportunities offered in the school grounds and local environment, and highlights relevant parts of the curriculum statement, Health and Physical Education in the New Zealand Curriculum, which support this approach (www.tki.org.nz/r/health/pedagogy/outdoored_e.php).

Risks and Challenges
In this level 4–6 unit intended for year 10, students explore different situations that involve people overcoming personal fear, apprehension, facing a risk, meeting a challenge, and making a crucial choice (http://english.unitecnology.ac.nz/resources/units/risks_challenges/home.html).

Taking Good Care of Ourselves
In this level 2–3 unit, intended for year 5, students will identify and use safe practices and basic risk strategies in orienteering, cycling, water safety, and first aid. Students write instructions and explanations, state facts and recount events, and use verbal and visual features to communicate information, using layout, photos, and ClarisWorks to present a brochure (http://english.unitecnology.ac.nz/resources/units/good_care/home.html).

Active First Aid
This website provides an online first aid manual (www.parasolemt.com.au).

Education Outdoors New Zealand
Education Outdoors New Zealand (EONZ) is the subject association for outdoor educators in New Zealand. The site includes contacts and activities of this organisation, and resources including "Outdoor Pursuits: Guidelines for Educators", "Quality Management and Safety Systems for EOTC", and "Outdoor Safety Management Systems" (www.eonz.org).

High Ropes Challenge
This page provides an example of an experiential learning programme leading to a high ropes activity. It incorporates adventure-based learning principles (www.recsports.umich.edu/challenge/sample.html).

Mt Ruapehu
This website gives provides snow reports, weather reports and a webcam of Turoa and Whakapapa ski areas, which may be useful for teachers planning trips to the central plateau (www.whakapapa.co.nz).

New Zealand Alpine Club
This website provides information for climbing enthusiasts including locations, climbing guides, techniques, and newsletters (www.nzalpine.org.nz).

New Zealand Mountain Safety Council
The New Zealand Mountain Safety Council's website provides access to courses, resources, and local branch contacts (www.mountainsafety.org.nz).

New Zealand Orienteering
Information about orienteering events and opportunities, and examples of course setting and planning of orienteering activities are available on New Zealand Orienteering (www.nzorienteering.com).

New Zealand Outdoors Instructors Association
This website provides a source of information for teachers of outdoor pursuits. Resources include assessment standards for kayaking and rock climbing (www.nzoia.org.nz).

Outdoor Safety Institute
A range of safety resources are available on this website for download including a code of ethics for outdoor educators, a synopsis of New Zealand legislation relevant to outdoor recreation activities, a risk analysis management system (RAMS), and a handbook for incident accident analysis (www.risk.net.nz).

Outdoors New Zealand
Outdoors New Zealand provides information for outdoor education including an information kit for teachers and parents entitled 'Safe As'. It also gives contact details for organisations that provide programmes, training, and resources for outdoor educators (www.outdoorassembly.org.nz).

Project Adventure
Project Adventure New Zealand's website includes an overview of the philosophy of adventure-based learning and experiential learning, information on a range of courses available and a contact for relevant resource material (www.panz.org.nz).

Sportsmart
ACC's sportsmart site (www.sportsmart.org.nz) provides information on common injuries, injury prevention, injury management, physical conditioning, and protective equipment.

Te Araroa: The Long Pathway
The plan of the Te Araroa Trust is to develop a nationally linked system of walkways in New Zealand. This site includes regular reports from Geoff Chapple who described his experience as he walked the length of the North Island (http://teararoa.org.nz).

Sports and Nutrition
This online learning centre deals with the fundamentals of sports and nutrition. The focus is on the impact of diet, the importance of meal planning, managing to keep energy levels up, and maintaining fluid levels during sports activities (www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/hsnut/index.html).

Physical education
Topics in this lesson plan database range from games to health and nutrition through to assessment, darts, sports, and fitness (http://schools.eastnet.ecu.edu/pitt/ayden/physed8.htm).

Kids running
This website covers coaching running at all levels. There are photos and stories from events, programmes, short and long-distance training programmes as well as curriculum materials, games, and classroom resources (www.kidsrunning.com).

Fitness plans for students
This site challenges students to create fitness plans for classmates, incorporating all the components of fitness, and a way for participants to track their progress (www.plainfield.k12.in.us/hschool/webq/webq34/jane.htm).

Adventure racing lesson plans
The USA Network have provided online lesson plans to explore overcoming obstacles, the importance of planning, and teamwork, based on the US television coverage of the Ecochallenge (www.usanetwork.com/cableinclassroom/eco).

New Zealand races
Sportzhub has information and results of most of New Zealand's multisport and adventure races (www.sportzhub.com).

Health and Physical Education in the New Zealand Curriculum (www.tki.org.nz/r/health/curriculum/statement/toc_e.php) and Social Studies in the New Zealand Curriculum (www.tki.org.nz/r/socialscience/curriculum/index_e.php) are available on TKI.