Auckland-Raglan, New Zealand
July 2005
“According to the map it should be 3 short swims between the sandbars, only about 100m or so each, with a total of about 5k running before we hit the first control flag – should take about an hour.” That was our pre-race view of the first leg of the 2005 Auckland Arrow 24 hour adventure race before we lined up at French bay in Titirangi early on the Saturday morning. Decked out in wetsuits and flippers we were ready for adventure ... and adventure we got!
The 1 hour mostly running turned into a 2 • hour battle against the tide as we fought our way across the rapidly rising Manukau harbour to the rocky coastline of Puketutu island and on to the beach transition. Behind us and the other early race leaders the bulk of the field were struggling in the cold conditions and the coast guard were hard at work picking up struggling, hypothermic competitors.
By this stage we were an hour and a half behind expectations and our poor support crew had been busy carting our kayaks nearly a kilometre out over the mud flats just to have to slowly bring them all the way back to the beach as the tide came in. After a change of clothes and some hot food we got underway on the long kayak leg over to Clarks beach and up to Waiuku. Our Insomniac kayaks did a great job battling into the wind across the harbour and we rounded Clarks beach in third place (and first mixed 4 person team) just on high tide. Unfortunately for the teams behind us this meant that the paddle was only going to get harder as the day wore on. It was certainly going to be a tougher race than last year.
A couple of quick stages followed which put some pressure on the support crew as they rushed to get each transition set up before we arrived. They did a great job and had hot food and dry clothes ready after the cycle to the Waikato river and again at Port Waikato as we transitioned from the kayaks into the trekking leg.
We donned our New Balance trekking shoes and started out on an amazing trek leg. After picking up the first control flag in the dunes we started a fantastic section along the coast where we were treated to a mix of coasteering and following cattle tracks as we made our way to the hill top and white shell beach that were the next control flag locations. (We have plans to return for some more training in this area as it is truly fantastic country.) Leaving the coastline we made our way up the riverbanks of a small stream to a waterfall checkpoint. As darkness fell we left the bush and were in farmland once more. Unfortunately things started to come unstuck at this point.
Having nearly caught the 3-man Pro-4 team up in front it then took us about 3 hours to find the next checkpoint which in the end was quite obvious had we only taken enough note of the corrections given at race briefing. We had been passed by team Sportzhub by this time but with a nice route choice to CF8 we leap-frogged past them again and onto the caving section. Stu and Sonya enjoyed this a bit more than the two Waynes who struggled a bit with some of the tighter squeezes. Wild (Wayne Oxenham) had extra reason to complain as Muscles (Wayne Hodgetts) who he was following, forced air out of not just his lungs to get through a tighter section. Suffice to say if Wild had been carrying a canary to test for toxic gas it would have been coming out in a small wooden box! From the cave exit it was then a steep climb and quick jog to the next transition where more dry clothes and hot food were waiting. (Our support crew are awesome!)
Pushed out of transition with cheers of encouragement we started the long bike to the top of Raglan Harbour with 5 control flags to pick up along the way. The first two were located easily enough and other than a brief attack of the sleep monsters for Stu everything was going pretty well. The next control flag proved difficult though and took a fair amount of searching before we found it at the underground rapids in a cool little cave in the farmland. By the time we were back on the road time was running short if we were going to make the cut-off for the final stage. We had the option of skipping the last two control flags in order to get to Raglan on time but felt that in traverse fashion we should get every control we could even if it meant missing the cutoff. This proved to be a good choice as the last MTB leg was cancelled altogether. A little confusion in the farmland cost us some more time but we relocated again to find the last two control flags and continue on to the kayak transition.
We got the news here that the last stage had been cancelled and to our surprise we had made up time on Pro-4 and were still ahead of Sportzhub. With high spirits we slopped our way across the muddy kayak get-in and started the final stage, a 12km kayak down the Harbour into Raglan township. The sun was out and the water was glassy and despite the incoming tide it was an enjoyable final stage (although not quite as enjoyable as stopping paddling once we reached the finish). This had been our longest race of the year and a fantastic course on which to notch up our 4th win.
Team Subaru Adventure would like to thank our sponsors, Subaru NZ, Insomniac Kayaks, New Balance and Mountain Hardwear. Also a huge thanks to our fantastic support crew and the organisers and helpers at the Auckland Arrow for putting on an amazing and challenging course.
Summary of the legs
Coasteer 2 hrs 28 mins
Kayak 3 hrs 28mins
Mountain Bike 48 mins
Kayak 1 hr 10 mins
Trek 9 hrs 15mins
Mountain Bike 4 hrs 15mins
Kayak 1 hr 28 mins
Total 27 hrs 2mins