Newspaper Article 2001 – No sweat in Sydney!

No sweat in Sydney!

Imagine an orienteering competition on Sydney Harbour! Tom and Vi Wheeler, long-time residents of Havelock North, took on that challenge in July as the only NZ representatives in the Rexona Rush Event.

“We entered the competition at the beginning of June, and were lucky enough to be drawn out of the barrel,” Tom tells us. “We heard later that there were 1000’s of NZ applications.” The couple were whisked off to Sydney where they were accommodated in the Wentworth Five-Star Hotel, along with the six Australian teams who were also competing.

Quite quickly they were into a briefing with the Unilever-Rexona sponsors, and then down to Darling Harbour. “The seven teams of two were each supplied with a speedboat, driver and crew,” Vi explained. “We were given an initial clue in riddle form which we had to unravel. The answer would tell us which harbourside jetty we should instruct our driver to go to, so that we could find the next clue.” They unravelled the first clue and headed to Taronga Zoo, and sure enough a Rexona rep. was there with the next riddle.

Unfortunately the harbour was fairly rough, so it wasn’t plain-sailing on this unusual orienteering treasure hunt. “The winners were a father and son team from Perth. After a reception on a catamaran in Darling Harbour, they got a ride back to the Wentworth in a limo. The rest of us had to take taxis!” recalls Tom with a grin. The enjoyment that Tom and Vi had from their excursion is evident from their enthusiastic recollections. Perhaps we should get Heinz-Wattie to sponsor such an event in the Bay!