The rugged Central Otago landscape has helped draw greater numbers to the New Zealand Orienteering Championships over Easter.
The championships, which are spread over four days starting tomorrow, have attracted more than 450 competitors.
A school team from the United Kingdom as well as a few Scandinavians are among more than 30 competitors from overseas.
The championships are themed around gold, with all races to take place in tailings and old goldfields.
Organiser Brian Buschl said the last time the championships were held in Otago was in 1998.
They were centred around Otago coastal forest and inland to Middlemarch.
New Zealand representative Carston Jorgensen is expected to dominate the races.
Buschl said the championships traditionally did not attract many runners when held in the South Island but had drawn more competitors this year as many people wanted to run in Central Otago.
The opening race tomorrow would be a sprint event and would take place in Roxburgh East, near the Teviot River tailings.
On Saturday, the middle-distance race will be held at Bannockburn sluicings.
On Sunday it will be the long-distance event.
That race, which will take up to two hours, will be at Earnscleugh Station, just above Conroys Gully.
The relays will be run on Monday, in and around Naseby.
