GOOD SPORT

TAKE A HIKE

Don your hiking boots and grab your scroggin for a week of walks. The Wairarapa Walking Festival encourages people to get out and explore the countryside. From 11 to 20 November more than 30 organised walks are on offer across various terrains, distances, and difficulties. They include cultural trails, vineyard strolls, tough climbs, star-gazing nighttime walks, and orienteering. Most of the walks are free to join, but participants will need to register online.

PHOENIX RISING

Michaela Robertson is the first Wellingtonian to sign for the Women’s Phoenix football team, after two years of training with the Phoenix academy’s emerging women’s programme. The 26-year-old is likely to be the smallest player on the team at just 1.47 metres tall, but her height has never slowed her down. She played for the New Zealand football team in the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. PEDAL TO THE METAL

Year 11 Kāpiti Coast student Yoshi Comeskey has won the 2022 KartSport Wellington Club Championship in the Senior Briggs Light class. Yoshi has quickly climbed the go-karting ranks, having received the Wellington club’s Rookie of the Year award last year, before moving to Junior, and then Senior class. The race took place at the Gazley Raceway in Kaitoke where Yoshi won three out of the five races, earning him the club championship title. WALK IN THE PARK

After a gap of eight years, Ōtaki’s triathlon is back on 27 November. The event was dropped in 2014. Ōtaki Pool’s new manager Andrew Adeane has fought to bring it back, to promote enjoyable exercise in the community. The renamed ŌT will start with a 400-metre swim in the pool, followed by a 20-kilometre bike ride, finishing with a five-kilometre run around the Haruātai Park trail.