The inaugural Kaikoura adventure race kicked off in the sunshine at 4pm on Saturday with a Prologue Rogaine which took us on a tiki tour of the town & show cased many beautiful views.
The results from this would determine our start time on Sunday around 8am from South Bay Reserve.
There were 3hr, 6hr & 12hr events with a kayak or coasteering option for the 12hr teams. We didn’t book a kayak quick enough so ended up coasteering for Stage 1 but it was a super circuit around the peninsula. Lots of seal encounters & awesome coast line!
Stage 2 was a MTB along the coastal trail turning off onto the Kowhai river trail with the first of many river crossings taking us to TA2 located near Lake Rotorua & Lake Rotoiti. Stage 3 had us trekking in the hills (more breath taking views) for 8 controls near lake Rotorua before returning to our bikes.
Stage 4 (Mud Monster stage) had plenty of hike a bike through shin deep bog around lake Rotorua before we eventually escaped onto the Kahutara river bed & TA3. Stage 5 had us on foot again tracking down another 9 controls in the hills (even more breath taking views)
Stage 6 was back on the bikes for a mostly riverbed ride/hike along the Kahutara river until we turned off at Green burn where there were some really strange horse jumps in the middle of nowhere! After what seemed like a long day we finally arrived at TA4. It was way past the cut off time for doing stages 7 & 8 so along with the majority of the field we joined the short course. After a much needed refuel from our drop bags which had been cooking nicely in the sunshine we jumped back on our bikes.
Stage 9 had a magnificent tailwind that took us back to the Kowhai river & under highway 1 to the plantation near the go kart track for TA6 where we ditched our bikes again for the Orienteering leg. This was pretty tough in the dark & it took us a while to get our heads around the orienteering map however after a couple we got the hang of it & cleaned them up. Yay, all we had to do now was ride back to South Bay where we were enthusiastically greeted by the organisers crew, a cold beer & some hot food.
Awesome photos by @SharonBrophyPhotography
Tips
· Get used to looking at lots of different maps. We had 1:10000, 1:15000, 1:20,000, 1:25000, 1:30000 & an Orienteering map
· Take vessels for carrying sufficient fluid as there can be a long time between water stations
· Organise your sea kayaks quickly
· Be prepared for mud, mud, glorious mud 😊
Thanks to Tim, Tane & all the crew for organizing a wicked adventure race!