What's it about? Here's a short definition:
Rogaining is the sport of long distance cross-country navigation for teams travelling on foot. The object is to score points by finding checkpoints (controls) located on the course within a specified time (e.g. 3, 6, or 24 hours). Checkpoints may be visited in any order.
The sport was invented in Australia, which still has more rogainers than anywhere else. There are various stories about how the name came about. One is that it stands for ROger, GAIl and NEil, the pioneers of rogaining. Another is that it means Rugged Outdoor Group Activity Involving Navigation and Endurance!
Orienteering Hutt Valley was the pioneer of rogaining in New Zealand back in 1991.
A classic rogaine is held in rural terrain over 24 hours. All teams start together, choose from the same controls, and finish together.
To find out more, try the rogaining overview from Orienteering NZ or "What is Rogaining?" from the Australian Rogaining Association website. It's about a page.
If you want a detailed introduction to the sport, one of the best we've found, with an Australian background, is a PDF booklet called "Which way's North?". To find out about the New Zealand flavour, look at "Rogaining in New Zealand".
Also see our Getting Started information.