Godzone Adventure Race

Day 2 at Godzone Adventure – The Teams Spread Out

Rob Howard / 09.03.2014

Race leaders Seagate are on their second trek of the race ... while the majority of the teams are still on their first, which means the leaders are 240km ahead of the back markers after a bit less than 2 days of racing!

As the sun rose for the second time on the race Seagate were on Stage 6, a difficult 58km trek across the Glen Wye Range which the organisers say offers very challenging navigation and lots of route options.  (They have deliberately not placed any checkpoints between transitions to allow all route choice options.)  The higher routes are exposed, and lower level choices could leave teams struggling in dense bush, which will slow progress dramatically.

Seagate started the stage in the dark, leaving TA5 in the early hours, but will now be able to complete the majority of the trekking route in daylight and more importantly for their race tactics they should complete it well before the 20.30 dark zone deadline on the following stage. This will allow them to set off paddling down the Hurunui River towards the coast and keep their lead over the chasing teams.

These are Absolute Wilderness NZ, Vida de Aventura, Chimpanzee Bar, Kathmandu XT, RandR sport Torpedo 7 and much further back along the trail the young Go 3.0 team. At the time of writing these are the only teams on stages 5 and 6 and all the remaining teams are still engaged with the difficulties of the high level trek across Mount Tapaeu-o-Uenuku.

The chasing pack are all Kiwi teams, with visiting international teams struggling to get into the top 10, Moxie AR from Ireland and BMX Bandits from Australia being the highest ranked.

Along with most of the teams they are still on the Stage 3 trek and many teams stopped to rest during the hours of darkness, struggling with the navigation or to try and warm up in their tents. Several teams, including Moxie AR and Kauri Coasters struggled to find the route top CP9.  The Course Planners notes had marked this waterfall checkpoint up a side valley out as being one of the most difficult to locate on the course, and those trying to find it in the dark found out that was the case.

Teams coming off this trek are going to be battered and weary and TA4 at Mount Gladstone Cottage is going to be busy today.

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