Hilary Challenge Reports

HILLARY CHALLENGE QUALIFIER - 2011

Over the weekend of 12/13 February Lizzie Rajan, Grace Gatenby, Teagan Voykovich, Belinda and Sven Pedersen, Mantez and Navdeesh  Singh-Thandi and led by James Hogg represented St Paul’s Collegiate School in the 2011 Hillary Challenge Qualifier at the Outdoor Pursuits Centre in the Tongariro National Park against 25 other schools.

The event was divided into three sections:

1.    The Environmental Project
    These were completed before the weekend, a CD of the project is submitted.

2.    On Saturday we completed five 60 minute long secret challenges, designed to test teamwork, a range of outdoor skills and adventure race components.

Challenge 1 involved kayaking skills – St Paul’s was 2nd
Challenge 2 involved mountain biking – St Paul’s was 12th
Challenge 3 involved lateral thinking team challenges – St Paul’s was 4th
Challenge 4 involved high ropes challenges – St Paul’s was 1st
Challenge 5 involved Canadian canoeing and 30 trivia questions – St Paul’s was 5th

3.    Three hour Rogaine competition on Sunday morning

This was a navigational exercise where teams had to plan their own route to find 27 markers in 10 hectares of farm and bush.   Ably led by the navigational skills of James and Mantez, and the fantastic fitness of the entire team we were 5th in this event.

Tragically, during the mountain biking challenge Grace suffered a fractured collarbone.  This meant she was unable to take a full part in the completion, and this unfortunately cost us one eighth of our points.   

This penalty in the end took St Paul’s from overall 1st to 6th place.
St Paul’s can be extremely proud of all the members of the team.  They gave it their absolute all.

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