GODZone 2021 - Rotorua
How do I wrap up GODZone? It was massive!!! Definitely my most favourite course but admittedly I also said to Dunc every single day ‘Don’t ever let me do this again. There’s nothing enjoyable going on right now!” For those interested grab a cuppa and settle in....
The race started with an awesome three hours of single track through Redwoods. Life was great! Stage 2 consisted of hiking and packrafting our way through forest and several small lakes. Our strategy was to move a little faster on day one than we had in the past – this seemed to be going ok. Towards the end of this stage at 3am we certainly encountered the funniest moment of the race. James was suddenly heard to say ‘F@*k’ in a very loud and angry voice. When asked what an earth had happened (he was walking along a little bow legged) he informed us that he had ‘shat himself’. I actually thought it was a little skidder and he was being dramatic. Turns out he wasn’t. After 5 minutes of complaining he spotted a water trough in the paddock which he dashed over too and proceeded to drop his shorts and have a good ole wash followed by having to wash his shorts. We were in stitches!!!
Stage 3 had us on the bike for 134kms – 12 hours. That’s a long time on a bike seat! It ended with 5 hours of single track just on dusk which was pretty cool until it started to bucket with rain. Yuck!! Heavy rain followed us into transition at 11pm and we decided some sleep was in need before we headed into what was deemed to be the toughest navigation section. Three hours with 4 of us squished into a 3 man tent unfortunately meant very little sleep and it was time to get moving again.
Stage 4 was a 20km hike section. Doesn’t sound too bad does it! The terrain/constant bush was foreign for this Canterbury team - at one point we were so lost that all there was to do was follow a creek down to the main tributary knowing that it would eventually lead us back to CP A so we could regroup. We did a 5 hour loop without getting any CP’s which dented moral but we made our way through the stage to arrive at our next MTB.
Stage 5 - A 70km bike. We believed this was going to be fast moving on road. To cut it short, it was not fast moving and 8 hours later, at 4am - we arrived in to see the best Support Crew any team could ever wish for. We crawled into our little haven of a horse float and slept for a solid 3 hours.
Stage 6 – Packraft & Hike. This section had a dark zone – which means you are not allowed on the river between 8pm & 7am - a compulsory 11 hour stop while other teams are still moving is best avoided if possible. It was during this stage on a 15km run to the raft that Ben started limping. We hit the river for the 34km paddle and were shortly greeted by the Sphincter rapid. So visualise the entire river barrelling down a chute that was not much wider than the packraft. THEN imagine your packraft capsizing at the very top of the rapid, at which point you are thrown down this 30m chute of fierce whitewater face first/ under the water / stuck under the packraft and banging into every rock on the way through. Hello fear of white water, welcome back after I have just spent the last 12 months getting rid of it!
Unfortunately our efforts didn’t get us down the river in time so we setup camp at 8pm on the side of the river. It was at this point that Ben’s ankle/achilles started ballooning – to the point where he actually couldn’t bare any weight on it at all. It was the weirdest thing as there hadn’t been an ‘actual’ injury so we were quite confused. We lit a fire, had a hot meal and in a strange kind of way had a really lovely evening with lots of laughs. Suddenly it was 10pm and we made ourselves go to bed – probably not wanting to face what state Ben’s leg would be in tomorrow. The commitment each person makes to getting to GZ is massive and it was devastating to think that Ben wouldn’t be able to finish his first Expedition race. As far as the team goes – if you lose a team member you are immediately unranked but thankfully are still able to carry on to complete the race if desired.
Waking up and seeing no improvement meant the decision was made for Ben– he didn’t have a choice. The nurse at the next transition thought it looked like an infection. So we thought a couple of days on antibiotics would see him right and he could join us for the 50km paddle across Lake Taupo.
At 11am our team of three set off on a massive 88km Hike section with 6000m of elevation gain. Not long in we met up with Team Ratpack which included my good friend Kristen. Yay new conversation! We completed most of this section with these guys which was great for moral, our first night stopping for a 3 hour sleep from 1am – 4am in a hut with several hunters (sorry hunters!). The next day saw us spending most of the day around 1500m elevation in heavy drizzle with limited visibility. I was wet to the bone in no time which didn’t bode well when at 8pm when it was dark, the sideways rain was heavy and we were lost. We had one ridgeline to find that would take us to a dry hut, oh but which ridgeline was it?? Kristen & I were frozen and a little scared! Eventually we slipped and slid our way down a muddy track to a hut with a bed for everyone much to my relief. We had a 4 hour sleep then at 2am, put all our wet clothes back on and made our 4hr journey out to our next TA. This might explain why emotions were so close to the surface when Sara (little blister) jumped out the horse float to announce she was going to paddle across Lake Taupo with us.
The rest of our race went reasonably smoothly. Sara certainly brought spark to a weary team and we punched out our paddle in under 8 hours – 4th fastest team! A little aerial pic would have been great entertainment when we had to raft our kayaks up (no one would let me go to shore to pee) so that I could squat over my seat for some much needed relief – Dunc’s horror that he had to witness this was comical.
We finished the paddle at 7pm then had a quick 60min sleep so that we could continue through the night to cross the finish line at 7am to an amazing welcome from our incredibly supportive families.
A massive thank you must go to Liv & Ren who went above and beyond to make sure our race ran smoothly. They had 2 nights without sleep while hanging around our cold transitions. Jill & Chris your behind the scenes work was hugely appreciated, we couldn’t have done it without you. Gill, Fiz, Rae & Paul we are very lucky to have such supportive and capable grandparents! Sara you were a superstar coming up to ensure we could complete our paddling sections of the race, I can almost see your little dance around the kitchen when Ren phoned to ask you.
Tavendale and Partners Limited – thank you very much for your generous sponsorship again this year. We felt proud flying the TP flag.
And to you our supporters, your messages of encouragement and support are always read and banked. We are so lucky to have you all.
Will I do another one? Might be too early to say…….
