A short update from the pub as we retreat from the heavy rain and wind which looks to have set in for the night - we are glad not to be out there battling the elements with the teams right now!
Orion starting the orienteering section.
The Kiwis at ARWC are all doing well - at the last report (at the end of the orienteering stage) Silva-Gerber with Aaron Prince stormed through the course with a decent gap ahead of a chasing bunch consisting of Blackwater (Chris Forne, Nathan Fa'avae), Outdry (Jacob Roberts, Ian Edmonds) and Spanish team Buff. Ian Edmonds commented that they felt like "little ducklings in the wake of Chris (Forne)" as they hung on to take advantage of Chris's navigation! Chris Forne himself said he wasn't feeling too great, although they had a clean run. Orion had a tough mountain bike ride with Brent suffering from some stomach troubles, giving Stu a good workout on the tow. Fleur and Nathan are both feeling perky. At the end of the orienteering they departed into the rain and wind about 30mins behind Blackwater and co. addidas Terrex (Sonya Clark, Warren Bates) came into the end of the orienteering as Orion departed and are about 10 minutes back looking happy.
As mentioned earlier the weather has taken a turn for the worse, with heavy rain and gale force winds, and daytime temperature drop from the 28 degrees we had yesterday to a high of 9 degrees today.
Teams will bike into the night, then complete a kayak/trek stage before dawn - here teams will split once more with one pair kayaking to the end of the lake, then walking back, and the second pair walking out and taking the kayak back. This should take them through to dawn, when they will complete a short inline section, followed by one of the key legs of the race a high mountain trek with a tough ropes section in the middle - estimated to take them 20 hours.
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