Seven teams (43 kids) took part in Friday evening's 'Streets of Tawa' quest. It was a very pleasant (and mild) night weather-wise even though we'd had a little rain earlier on.

We started at the playground end of Lyndhurst Park and the route took us up Lyndhurst Road (by the way, you're quite welcome to skip this part), along Tainui Tce, Kiwi Cres, Kiwi Place, through Larsen Park, Larsen Cres, thru Larsen Reserve to Peterhouse St, Balliol Drive, Oriel Ave, Gonville St, St Johns Tce, down the walkway to Lane Cres, Redwood Ave, up the walkway to Kereru Bend, The Drive, Te Reinga View, down the walkway to Elena Place, Main Road, and we finished at the Lucas residence in Oxford St.

There were 30 questions to be answered. Each correct answer was worth one point, except for six 'trickier' questions which were each worth two or more points. In addition to that, the question sheet contained black & white photos of four letter boxes which we passed in different streets. All that the 'participants' had to do was list the streets in which those letter boxes (all numbered, of course, and shown below in colour) were located. Two teams got full marks in that department.

And just to make things a little more interesting, each team had to carry with them a plastic chair over the route. A certain silver car drove around the streets, and the role of one of its occupants was to 'spot' the person carrying the chair (by shining a torch on them) before they had the chance to sit down on it. However if team members spotted the car first and had someone sitting on their chair, they were safe, otherwise they lost a few points. As it was still light for the first half-hour of proceedings, it wasn't too difficult to see a silver car approaching. But once it got darker, about 8pm, it was a different story! Most, but not all, teams got 'spotted' at least once, and a couple of teams each got 'spotted' three times! In the end, it didn't make any difference to the points totals, because those teams had fewer correct answers than the others anyway.

Not taking into account any points deducted for being 'spotted', points totals ranged from 34 (out of 50) to 48 (out of 50). As everyone arrived at the end destination within the allocated time, it would be safe to say that no-one got lost (at least seriously), and it looked like most (if not all) of those involved had a pretty good time.

For your information:

There are 52 upright posts holding up the wooden fence alongside the sports field at Lyndhurst Park. Most teams got this one right. Some of the Year 8 girls struggled.

The total number of trees/bushes planted in the grass verges of Balliol Drive is 22. No team got this one right, although a couple were one out (which meant they got three points out of four for that question). Other answers ranged from seven to 27!

The number of power poles you walked past in St Johns Tce was six. Three teams got the correct answer. The other ones had trouble counting.

Several teams had trouble counting steps, maybe because it was dark. Who knows?

Most teams got most of the other answers right.

One more thing: in case you're interested in how well your team performed (and which team was the overall winner), click - near the top of this page - on the qwrtyepsdfbnkholjszce. [That's actually a secret code! Keep every third letter. Get rid of the rest, and it should make sense].