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Richard Ussher (Team Subway) / 20.04.2012

Elina and I headed to Queenstown last week for the inaugural Godzone Adventure race where we joined forces with Braden Currie and Sam Clark to form Team Subway.

The Godzone race was the first expedition race NZ has seen since the World Championships were held on the West Coast in 2005 and there was a huge amount of anticipation amongst the racers as to what the race would hold.

The race would be unsupported, with team’s gear boxes transported by the organization and all their food, gear and bikes having to fit in pre-packed gear boxes so organization and solid planning where going to be key as well as good communication and team work to help us through the grueling course which we still had only guesses as to where it would be.

After the pre race formalities we were loaded onto buses on Sunday morning and headed off to a mystery location for the start, which most people familiar with the area were guessing would be Milford Sound.  After a stop in Te Anau for lunch this was confirmed as we headed up the stunning Eglinton Valley towards Milford.

Excitement was high when we pulled into the Divide and we finally got our first look at the course and maps. There were a few surprises for everyone but the course definitely looked like it would be both stunning and tough. Arriving at Milford with a touch of daylight left we were treated to some great views of Mitre Peak and the surrounding mountains.

The race had in many ways started already with gearboxes already loaded and now just one short evening before we headed by boat to the start the next morning at the rather early hour of 4am. We were fortunate to have access to the ferry terminal at Milford to plot courses on the maps; cook dinner and many teams took the option to avoid a night in the tent and instead bunked down on the floor.

Just after 6am the next morning we were out at the edge of Milford Sound doing final prep for the first leg, a 15km paddle back in towards Milford, in the dark you could still see cascading waterfalls around the edge of the fiord and a stiff wind was blowing in from the Tasman sea creating some perfect conditions for a fun paddle. The biggest challenge in the dark was keeping track of our teammates with boats all charging off the start. The organization had also provided the boats and it took only minutes to realize just how well they performed in the following sea with teams able to surf effectively from one wave to the next. Our team was working well and together with race favorites Seagate we spent a fun hour chasing each other back towards the TA in Milford.

Many of the other teams were getting highlights of another sort as they were joined by a pod of Dolphins who surfed and frolicked in between the boats for much of the trip back in.

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