Thread: Hihitahi Challenge 2015

how many rounds do you need ?

At least 15

Great day out today, many thanks to the Gillie boys and all their many helper and all the prize sponsers, Cheers for a great day.

Pitty more people off here didn't turn up and support this event : (

Bloody awesome day, bloody awesome people , nice to meet some forum members, and above all,

A FANTASTIC EVENT

nice work @Gillie

As usual, another great event organised by Malcolm and Simon.

Good to see couples, families and several youngsters competing, and even a couple of old farts

Long day driving up from Waikanae and only got back to the Hutt around 22H30, but well worth it.

Blows my mind that organisers struggle to fill events such as this... sad that we live in an age of internet warriors who never seem to bother turning up for anything slightly challenging... These events are such a great way to confirm all the fundamental skills and see where you need to put in some extra work. Loved the compass nav - lots of interesting debate with kiwi39 as we walked around the course.

Huge thanks to the marshals, and especially to the friendly land-onwner, what an awesome piece of NZ... A winter event there would be fun

"Sneaky Simon" lived up to his reputation, with all kinds of tricks.

A magnificent event which was extremely well planned, presented and managed by Simon and Malcolm and their family and friends. The quality of entrants was good but we need many more in order to keep this event growing. A well as this "old fart' competing, there was even a gnome or two wombling about the course. This is great to see along with several female and juniors and couples competing.

Good work the Gillice's!

Originally Posted by Woody

there was even a gnome or two wombling about the course.

must be talking about @Philipo, heehee

Not!

Originally Posted by ebf

must be talking about @Philipo, heehee

You must be mightily relieved to find someone (marginally) shorter than yourself


Tim

Hahahaha, PS- Im of average height according to what Ive heard on Police Ten 7

Sorry my reply was off my phone & it's piddly arse screen last night, Yup have to agree with you guys was great catching up with all the forum members that turned up ( as I said before, pity there wasn't more that made the effort - shit some guys drove hours to get to the event & I bet they don't regret it ) & what a neat place

Well done to @Bagheera & also @Woody, enjoy those bino's mate...... Chur


Hope this is run again next year, I certainly would take more time to smell the flowers & spot those friggen # boards blahahaha, @Gillie


Bring on next weekend & bring on the noise

Thanks for the comments guys, we really appreciate it.

Got home about 9:30pm last night pretty tired after a full on, long weekend for us. As the other guys have said, the event went very well with only a couple of organisational hiccups during the day. Was really good to see the partners, kids and families that turned up to give the course a go.


@Bagheera took out a very well deserved win to take the trophy - proving that consistently performing over a range of scored challenges will get you there. @Woody ended up third showing that experience tops speed in this event. Woody, that compass advice must have helped because you had a great navigation score!


Top lady competitor was 5th overall, helped out with an awesome ability to spot random numbers we placed around the course! We didn't expect anyone to get all the numbers but her, and her partner found them. There were three ladies in the top ten!


A very good weekend, a whole lot of competitors went home smiling and with a prize (Fu#king awesome sponsorship!). Organisers went home with a prize as well. I'll post some more once I have had time to sort through results, photos and the video.

Great stuff simon and malcom!
I would have come up and helped but had two freezers that had thawed out with a blown fuse which was not much fun!
I will be there next year for sure!

I'd like to pass on my appreciation to whoever made the trophy. They put a lot of time and expertise into it. Here it is bundled into the back seat of my car.



The idea of this sort of event is more a challenge to yourself than a competition against others and Gillie had set it up so there were both achievable and rather difficult challenges for both beginners and old farts. That's not an easy brief for the event organiser but full marks to the planning team, it was a personal challenge for everyone. As always, he made us think on our feet. Who would have imagined the only way to get a clear shot down into the gully would be to move away from the target ? or that they'd have to identify a tree seldom seen in the wild because it has been almost exterminated by possums ? yarn with a guy using a .204 Ruger necked out to 6mm ? follow a compass bearing to find a hidden hut ? or say which symptoms are least associated with heat exhaustion ? This is vintage Gillie stuff.

People who've done an NZDA HUNTS course would hit the ground running on a day like this. And if a few of the instructors had entered, the likes of Phillipo, Woody and me would have come in further down the rankings. There are a lot more people with the skills out there but we don't really know till they try themselves out.


It was a bit of an epic day and we really looked forward to sausages and a cold ginger beer back at the woolshed.

The venue does need a bit of driving but no more than a lot of hunting weekends away. It's closer to Wellington than Mt Ruapehu or Lake Taupo. There's plenty of opportunity for hunting nearby on the Sunday - Ruahines, Kaimanawas and others I shouldn't name on the open net.


Someone had left dry firewood by the fireplace at the Waipakihi road end. There's plenty of good sorts around if you keep an eye out ...

Good comments Bagheera.
People need to realise this is not just shoot blurt and squirt event but something far more substantial and so very worthwhile.
For me, the course took 7 hours to complete so this is in no way a minor task. it is a major personal challenge and I sincerely hope that hunters will take the HIHITAHI CHALLENGE to heart and support it.
In fact, as you point out, it is as much a personal challenge as anything and I believe the concept and contribution of this event by the Gillice family and the charity of the Hihitahi station are things which, given the deserved support of the hunting and outdoors fraternity could become an Iconic Internationally recognised event. It is not for 1 hour wonder type persons but involves a long slog and multiple tests of several outdoor skill sets. Truly a personal challenge which Simon and Malcolm have carefully designed to be able to be fairly assessed and measured. An absolute credit to them, their sponsors and hosts and something which should valued as an achievement , even to just compete in, let alone win or place.
There were a number of participants there who would have known that they were most unlikely to win a high placing but they are to be admired for their courage to have a go, and to benefit by learning in the process. I was really taken with one family in particular, who competed as a group, Mother, Dad a teenage son and daughter. Other younger and older couples also competed. The ability built and designed into the event by the Gillices' to accommodate such competitors is pure GOLD and the participation and safe enjoyment of this event by all walks of life is one of the things that makes this HIHITAHI CHALLENGE extremely special. But at the same time, the winner of this event can be justifiably proud of his or her achievement because it is not easy to be top overall.
I absolutely admire and support the concept and the wide range of persons and abilities it caters for.
I also would like to thank the other participants, especially the younger ones, both male and female, who will be the champions of this event in future years, partly because they dared to give it a try now, and will inevitably be the better for having done so. We can all look forward to giving it a go next year.

Been working on the video from the 2015 Hihitahi Challenge. Still working on the full video but have put together this short teaser in the mean time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fl542HxaPqs