Orion Health Godzone Adventure Race
Milford Sound A Magic Start For Orion Health Godzone Adventure Race
News Release / 09.04.2012
The inaugural Orion Health GODZone Adventure race got off to a magical start this morning in Milford Sound. 31 teams of four lined up out in the Sound under the Bridal Veil Falls, where the race was started at 6.30am by race patron and nine time Coast to Coast winner Steve Gurney.
”It was a mass of headlamps and glow sticks lighting up the shoreline and quite magical," says co race director Adam Fairmaid.
We wanted the teams to experience this intense landscape at the start of the race probably when it will be more memorable for them and they were very excited to get out there."
Teams had an early start at 3.45am when they were transported out into the Sound by Real Journeys vessel, the Milford Haven and then Mariner Tender boats to the Bridal Veil Falls.
Leading New Zealand teams made short work of the 8km paddle and teams quickly found their pace as the light came up and with a tail wind behind them Team Subway were first off the water in a blistering paddle time of 55minutes. However Team Seagate were right on their tail and actually checked in ahead of them at 7.30am with Subway checking in at 7.31am. Both teams were immediately on their bikes and left the TA within 2 minutes. Third off the water was Team 27 One Square Meal from Christchurch in a time of 58mins and in fourth Team Mountain Designs from Australia and these teams too were quickly onto their bikes and heading up the Milford Road towards the Homer Tunnel.
Back in the mid field, teams experienced the highlight of a pod of Bottlenose dolphins that splashed and flipped around their boats.
Lisa Antill from Australian Team Hard Yuccas was surprised by how close they got to the wild life, “They were fully breaching out of the water around us, and it was quite incredible to witness."
Not much time separated the lead teams as they biked through the Homer Tunnel and down into the Upper Hollyford valley towards the Eglinton River. Here it was a smooth transition into inflatable kayaks for Team Seagate, Subway and One Square Meal. Team Macpac Girls, Tiki Tour, R&R Sport and Mountain Designs all made good time along with Team City Bike Depot and Orion Health.
Co race director Warren Bates says the teams are blazing through the first day of the six day event and are currently ahead of projected race times by 20 - 30 minutes. Tonight the teams will head into their first night with a 54km trek over the Dunton Mountain Range just outside of Te Anau.
"We expect the first teams to arrive at the Mavora Lake transition area in the early hours of tomorrow morning (Tuesday 10th) but I have to say there is some tricky navigation on this trek particular for one checkpoint so they could spend some time bush bashing to try and find it. It’s going to be exciting to see if the lead teams remain in their current positions but I'm not expecting them to sleep much if at all on the first night so they could move quite quickly.
Teams are travelling with a satellite navigational tracking device with live coverage on line at www.godzoneadventure.com
First teams are expected across the finish line on Thursday in Queenstown but racers have until 2pm on Saturday to complete the course.
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