Godzone Adventure Race 2013

Without a doubt the whole team were excited about Godzone. It had been several months since our last race together and we were primed for another adventure in the southern hills. Nath had recently moved to Queenstown for a gap year making for some familiar ground to head towards. Straight off the plane I was collected and we headed for the Kawerau’s Dog leg rapid. Nath paddled a white water boat while Soph and I paddled an inflatable double canoe. It was a great opportunity for some last minute sharpening for my canoe steering skills. Awesome! Chris was still on his way. All we could do was lay sweepstakes on his arrival time. Guaranteed it would be last minute, guaranteed it would be when we least expected it. One thing we were sure of however was that he wouldn’t get lost!

Saturday 9^th March:

Yesterday had been spent packing boxes and organising gear. There was nothing left to do but hand in our gear boxes and board the buses. As with last year’s race the bus trip the start was rife with speculation. Where were we headed? As it turned out rumors of a Mt Cook start proved correct. Maps were dished out in Omarama before an afternoon briefing in the Hermatage. The course looked good. A little shorter than last year and perhaps easier navigation but challenging all the same. Major competitors would come in the form of Harraways Oats (Aaron Prince, Stu Lynch, Dougal Allan, Jess Simpson), Macpac, and Thule with several other teams close by if things were to go pear shaped.  A brief description of the stages would be as follows:

1.   .    25km Mountain section above Mt Cook village

2.       37km Inflatable canoe down the Tasman river

3.       140km Mountain-bike

4.       59km Trek in the Dingle Burn area

5.       70km Mountain-bike from Lindis Pass to Albert town

6.       90km Kayak down the Clutha, Lake Dunstan finishing near Cromwell.

7.       35km trek through the Pisa range finishing at the Snowfarm

8.      72km Mountain-bike to Crown Range eventually finishing in Queenstown (via Shotover gorge swing)

 

If pre-race predictions held true this year would involve much closer racing where we ran away with a 12 hour margin. We would do everything we could to get away again but it would be much tougher. Included in this “everything” was a $59 buffet at the Hermatage restaurant. Safe to say we stuck out like a sore thumb but between the food quality and minimal wait time it was ideal last minute preparation!

6am Sunday 10^th March:

With promptness and organisation second Nature to Warren and Adam race start was sharp on 6. We ran at a solid clip through the Village and onto the Sebastapol trail. Teams jostled for position while headlights darted around searching for misplaced teammates. We kept it calm. There was no immediate hurry apart from shadowing the top few teams. Chris and I had spotted a route through the Sebastapol bluffs last night so with Harraways and Thule deviating we took our own line and emerged on the saddle victorious (only for a few minutes…). Before long Harraways were hot on our tail but Thule lagged behind. This theme would extrapolate through the entire race.

 

The remainder of the section was spent with Harraways. No one tried to make a move rather we all tried to establish a gap to the trailing teams. The section was spectacular to say the least. Commanding views spread out across the Hooker and Tasman Valleys with Mt Cook dominating the sunrise. Cloud drifted in at about 1000m making for a perfect start. Several times I had to pinch myself back into the reality that we were in fact racing. The pace remained consistent throughout the stage descending past Mueller hut, back into the Hooker Valley. Not wanting to slacken the pace the adventure race shuffle re-established itself as we continued down the Hooker, and up the Tasman to the Tasman moraine lake complete with icebergs. This was TA 1 and came not a moment too soon. 5km of jogging up the valley without water had left me craving a refill.

 

TA1 saw all alliances disappear. Each team for themselves. Here we turned the heat on, quickly grabbing our rafts and onto the 1km gear carry to the edge of the lake. It was far enough with a 20kg raft. The lake couldn’t come soon enough. Wetsuits, lifejackets, raft pumping and the heat all fuelled the hectic pace. Probably 2mins clear of Harraways we jumped into the boats and paddled off heeding the warnings about upcoming rapids. Yee haaa!!! The first couple of rapids were awesome with substantial waves requiring clever positioning in the boats. Unbeknown to us teams behind were having much more fun leaping backwards off their boats and swimming the rapids (also known as “getting nailed”).

For 90mins we paddled unchallenged, pleased with the rapid flow and progress. A 50/50 braid selection by myself proved costly antd after another 20 minutes of questionable flow the reality was that the main flow was to our right. Even worse was that I could see Harraways quickly mowing us down. Bugger! Soon after the two flows merged coinciding with Harraways catching up. Game on again. Lake Pukaki approached in tediously slow fashion with a quickly braiding river but eventually we broke free the shallows and set to work making these fat inflatables move effectively on flat water. 9km remained to TA2. Slowly but surely we edged a small gap on Harraways. Upon reaching TA 2 2-3 minutes seperated the two teams with the trailing teams barely in sight. 

A quick TA saw us on the bikes for the first time and moving quickly. The first half of this 140km ride would take us along the edge of lake Pukaki then through Twizel, round the Southern end of Lake Ohau then up the Ahuriri River to the TA. The first 100 or so kilometers went fast. Harraways were still on our tail, we could see their lights behind us. The first TA in the Ahuriri valley was in the Clay cliffs. This was an uneventful area by night but would have been stunning by day. A dead-end track cost us a couple of minutes and gave Harraways another sniff at how close the carrot was. 35km remained. It would be a mixture of farm trails and gravel road and progress was much slower than earlier in the ride. Harraways seemed to ebb and flow behind us. At times we were sure they would catch right up only to be surprised that they'd dropped right back. Either way we entered TA3 at Ben Avon station with a narrow 10 minute lead. No time for mucking around.....trekking gear on. 

Stage 4 was to take us toward Lake Hawea in the Dingle Burn area. The predicted time was 20hours but Chris had other ideas! In actual fact the Trek did take us 20 hours. It was an honest trek with some decent climbs. From my perspective this was a frustrating section. It was hard to get any great rhythm or momentum and was typified by the trail down the Timaru River which was off camber with seemingly endless climbs out  off the river to avoid bluffs and waterfalls. I think we covered about 8km in 3 hours which puts in perspective how slow the trail was. Monday (Day 2) was a particularly hot day and despite being well hydrated and eating plenty I found the last 90minutes more difficult than normal. In fact what would normally be a steady walking pace became damn near impossible. Luckily the rest of the team weren't in such a hole and helped me through the last hour. The media's mistake on Sophie's name to "Sophie Hard" was pretty accurate in this hour.

As dusk fell we entered transition at Lindis Pass. Not a moment too soon for me and a change of discipline represented a much needed break for the feet. 20 hours on the feet had taken its toll. To the eye my feet were fine but the  nerves were sensitive.....enough to make me walk like an idiot!

It was great to be on the bike. It was even better to have a break from the sun. My problems late in the trek were definitely linked to such a hot day in the sun. I don't tend to handle the heat well and in hindsight more swimming may have helped my cause. This section would take us 1400m up to the top of Grandview mountain before dropping down to Lake Hawea and following the Hawea river to Alberttown. All going well we would arrive in Alberttown close to 4am in the dark zone and catch some much needed kip before the Clutha kayak section. Initially there seemed to be more trekking than biking but as we gained elevation the terrain improved and I was loving being on the bike. I think there's always a period of adjusting the eyes to night riding after a bright day in the sun and this seemed to improve with time. A quick nap and some smooth downhill later we entered the Hawea flats and soon after were on the river cycle trail playing dodgems with countless rabbits. How we didn't hit one I don't know! The trail was smooth and fast....a little too smooth whilst sleepy but TA5 arrived without a hitch.

Disassemble bikes, food, teeth, wees bed! An hour and forty of sleep was bliss. Getting up wasn't so but we were all much better for it. The dark zone lifted at 7am so we made haste to be in our boats and ready for a 7 sharp start. A small crowd gathered to cheer us off at 7 and a small chuckle radiated as 3 of us paddled off while Chris continued to put his spraydeck on. I was loving being in the boat. It was cool and the beginning of another beautiful day. Later it would be uncomfortable in the heat but for now with the weight off my feet and fast moving water life was good. Every hour we stopped for a brief snack before continuing down river at what I'd call a consistent pace. This would continue for another 7 hours until we reached TA6 on the banks of Dunstan. Before then we would paddle most of the way down Dunstan to a CP close to the Clyde Dam returning to the TA at Lowburn. My main point of suffering was returning from CP 17 at Caimmuir to Lowburn. Not only did we pass Harraways and estimate the gap at 60 minutes but the Sun was in full force reflecting off the lake and making life difficult for my non-sun glassed eyes. Passing Harraways represented a reality check. Time to narrow the focus again and stretch the gap.

The Lowburn TA has fond memories. Adam and Warren had organised vegetable soup, Lasagne and fresh cheese buns for teams in transition. Amazing! I didn't eat anything during the entire race that tasted so good. Nice work boys...

It was now 3:30pm and the heat was incredible. The first 2km of the Pisa trekking stage was on the road and the heat radiated off with intensity. Nath and I spent our time scanning ahead for irrigation streams and creeks to cool off in. If we could look after ourselves during the next 2 hours it would surely pay forward to better pace in the racing that followed. Initially we kept a good steady pace. Everyone was feeling good and progress came without force for several hours. After dark the third CP presented a sting in its tail with steep sidling coupled with an increased presence of speargrass. The feet again protested but we pushed on. Chris was as usual navigating like a legend and the rest of us did our best to keep pace. The terrain eased dramatically en route to CP 22 giving rise to sleepiness. Challenges would continually present themselves at this stage of the race and the team that overcomes them the best generally moves the quickest....or such was our goal anyway! First up would be a quick nap at CP22 to get through the next couple of hours. The lights of the Snow Farm were visible in the distance and without too much trouble TA 7 was upon us.

Final Stage....awesome! This ride would take us from the Snow Farm across the Crown Range, down to Arrowtown then to Queenstown via the Shotover canyon swing. From my perspective the Crown range road seemed a long time coming. There was plenty of pushing, plenty of ruts to confuse tired eyes with a nap or two to keep us on the game. No one said much, we just got about the business. The witching hours coincided with a drop into Arrowtown. Keeping warm was hard but Nath found a solution in the Patagonia Nano-puff jacket that worked amazingly. As with any race there is usually a sting in the tail. Godzone wasn't too bad but if there was a sting it would have to be the climbs out of Littles road and then up to the Shotover gorge swing. The legs definitely protested.

The Gorge swing was great. Three days of racing didn't leave much adrenalin in the pipeline but I sure as hell did enjoy getting the weight off my feet. Its not often you feel sleepy on a 100m+ swing! Formalities over there was only one thing left to do.....finish. Down the Shotover valley we went enjoying the cheers of local supporters and the dawning of another cracker day. Think I might sleep this one away......

The Finish was great. Several locals along with a selection of hard working race volunteers lined the finish chute to welcome us home. Pizza waited over the line along with plenty of cameras, questions and a seat that had my name on it. It had been another great race for us as a unit. Physically we had all come from different build ups probably not making for our strongest race but team cohesion shone through to create another solid collective performance. Thanks again to my teammates for a great racing. Legendary navigation from Chris, race brains from Nath and strength from Soph. Its always humbling. Thanks also to Haraway Oats. Three hours behind is nothing to scoff at. The racing kept us honest and was a sleep stopper for the online spectators. Now they'll have a much better idea of how sleep deprivation works!