Round 2 of the NZ portion of the Arrow international 24hr Adventure Race series had been changed from it's usual location of Christchurch to be held in sunny Alexandra for the first time.
The moniker 'sunny Alexandra' applies mainly, of course, during the summer months when Alexandra is the driest and one of the hottest places in NZ, and not during the winter, when it is one of the coldest. Guess whether it's summer or winter? Just for added spice, the weekend before the race 'the coldest snap of the year' was being splashed all over the papers as the forecast for the week leading up to the race, with the South Island's farmers bracing themselves for heavy dumps of snow down to low levels, and with Richard Anderson, the race director, insisting on a sleeping bag per competitor for the tramp and bike legs.
Suzette has decided to concentrate on solo races for the rest of the year, and Wendy was in Rotorua watching the world MTB champs, but thankfully Kirstine Collins who we raced with at the ARC was available and eager, and Shane decided to take a race off as Colin Slater, who we did last year's Christchurch Arrow with was interested in having a hit out.
With Helen joining us in her usual position of crew chief, and with John and Brian who also crewed for us at last year's Arrow Christchurch joining us again, we were hopeful of a good result.
The logistics of joining people from Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch up in Alexandra all seemed to work themselves out with a minimum of fuss, and thus we found ourselves in a motel on Friday evening, going through the usual routines of unpacking all our gear, packing food, talking about potential routes, and generally hanging around until the briefing.
The briefing showed up that there was going to be a bit more competition than in Auckland, with 7 teams in the traverse category, including Hamish Robb's Central Adventure team who were runners up in last year's championship, but only due to the fact that they did less races than us! Other AR stalwarts such as Murray Thomas and Bill Godsall were also racing, so the pace at the front was likely to be high, so it was nice to have something to aim for!
The briefing also showed Richard's sense of humour as he revealed a course that would take us past Alexandra twice, and then finish there, with us first paddling South past it, then riding North past it, and then tramping into it, with all 3 legs being of a similar distance, around 45-50K each!
We had been pre-warned that there was going to be a portage, so the fact that we were portaging around the Clyde Dam was of very little surprise, though the distance above and below the dam that we were paddling was! After our experience in Auckland of carrying the boats, we had invested in a couple of sets of wheels, and as we arrived at Champagne Bay on Saturday morning, it was obvious that most other teams had brought something along to ease the portage, whether it was pre-bought professionally manufactured stuff like ours, or typical Kiwi No 8 wire ingenuity like Bill's butchered pram.
As we'd driven up to the start we had noted the fact that we couldn't see the dam as it was shrouded in mist, but this started to burn off quite quickly, and as we warmed up in the boats it was looking like being a pleasant paddle, and the paddle jackets and the pogies seemed like overkill, but would stay on at least for the 8K to the portage.
'The gun' went off at 8am, and we set off at a brisk pace, managing to tag onto the back of the lead group of about 10 boats for 3 or 4K, before they slowly pulled away from us as we approached the dam, with us in turn pulling away from the majority of boats behind us.
The lead group seemed a bit confused about where they were pulling off to portage, so by being a bit more positive, and having a good routine to get the boats up on the wheels we made a little time on them, and started running after them, with Kirstine, Colin and I dealing with the boats while Barry carried the paddles and dealt with stripping pogies off before we got back into the water.
We had a good portage, passing a few people with some interesting efforts, like the couple of guys gamely running with their boat on shoulder, and a team of 4 who had 1 boat up on wheels, and the 2nd boat suspended from the first, looking like a scarily fragile artic.
We passed the dam proper and headed downhill into ever increasing and cooling mist, thankfully close enough to see a team take a pretty direct looking route to the get in, so we followed them, bumping the boats down a rutted gravel road, and getting a welcome hand from the marshals at the bottom to get back in as a couple of boats that had obviously entered higher up appeared out of the mist and headed down stream for us to pursue.
Setting off into the dense mist was not only slightly unnerving as the Clutha's massive boils seemed to appear out of nowhere and cause the boats a few directional issues, but also because it was 'kin freezing! I lost all feeling in my thumbs, but thankfully managed to keep hold of the paddle, while Barry was toastie behind me as I created a little shield in front of him. The next half an hour or so of paddling was the most painful of my life, as we tried to maintain the decent pace that we had started with, despite lack of feeling, and eagerly scanned the mist both for signs of other boats, and for signs of the shore, or of sun burning it off and restoring some heat to us before we got into the high sided gorge below Alex.
As we approached Alexandra the sun did indeed do it's job, and I quickly thawed out, appreciating the warmth, we slowly drew closer to a couple of boats in front of us, overtaking a pair in a Hypernova that pulled over to the side just after the CP at Alex - an hour and a half into the paddle and now we had to do the first leg of the Goldrush, which Colin and I had knocked out in about 2:20 when we raced it earlier this year.
We maintained what felt like a good pace as we turned South and headed into the Gorge, drafting each other, and then latching onto the back of the Hyper that had just pulled over. Due to the fact that there were only 3 legs, the relay teams had been told that they could split the legs up any way they wanted, and this team had obviously swapped paddlers at Alex to a couple of _really_ strong old boys, who were taking no prisoners, and gave us a great tow for about 10 minutes.
When the time came, they peeled off and expected us to keep up the pace, which we had a really good go at, but just wasn't going to happen, so after a few minutes trying to repay their kindness, and having caught up to a 4 person mens team that we could now get a bit of a tow off, we let them go.
We played a little cat & mouse with the mens team, and then slowly pulled away from them, seeming to keep station with the relay guys as they had obviously slowed a little in front.
The long, straight nature of the gorge meant that we could see for a good distance, and we were pleased to see that we could just make out all 4 teams that were in front of us ( we'd been 6th past Alex, and had passed R&R Sport ), which gave us great incentive to keep up the pace.
Rounding the last corner for the final ( 3K or so ) drag down to the Hydro, Murray Thomas's team caught us, and we redoubled our efforts in the very odd conditions ( following chop turning into stationary standing waves as we approached the hydro ) to just beat them into the transition.
We grabbed the wheels back out of the boat, and loaded the boats back onto them for the carry down to the transition area while I digested the news from Helen that "You've only got 3 bikes, Colins has been taken to the shop", not that there's a lot really to be done about it!
Apparently one of Colin's brake lines had come out during the loading/ unloading/ storing/ shifting process, and the crew had ( rightly ) decided that 50Ks without brakes could be a bit dangerous, so had taken it off to the menders!
I suggested that we should try and get through the transition as quickly as possible anyway, so that we could vamoose as soon as the steed was returned, and we got the boats down to the FART with only a brief rest to empty 4hrs worth of fluid build up, and to the tune of Barry complaining that "something's just gone twang in my calf" - damn!
As we readied ourselves for the next stage, we watched forlornly as about 3 teams headed out on the ride, and then there was a beeping, flashing silver station wagon heading down the road as fast as the law would allow, and it was time to go, having lost probably 5 minutes maximum - sweet!
We headed down the road for a couple of K and then turned hard left back on ourselves, to start the 13 or so K slog up the Knobby Range road. We were going reasonably well and had just passed a team when the most awful sound in the world emanated from my rear tyre, and the rim started bumping along the gravel - arse, the valve had ripped itself out of the tube and rather ruined it's capability to hold air. While Kirstine and Barry kept grinding up the hill, Colin and I replaced the tube, and returned to being forlorn watchers as the team we had just overtaken, and another, went past ;-(
After an interminable climb, we reached the Knobby Range, and turned left, leaving the Goldrush route, and headed 'proper' off road, after picking up our first Control Flag - punched through the map as I had forgotten to pick up the control card at the transition, Doh!
The climbing continued on a squidgy 4WD track across farmland for another couple of hundred vertical metres, and despite the moistness of the track and even occasional boggy section, we were amazed at how dry the farmland was, with little growing looking like it was going on in the brown hills surrounding us.
Eventually we topped out at about 930m, and began a fantastic 5K descent that dropped us about 400m of brilliantly fast doubletrack, replete with rock ledges that gave us little ramps and drops that only Kirstine could really make the most of, as I was concerned about how much I'd inflated my rear tyre, and the guys were both having brake issues, which proved interesting at a couple of closed gates!
At the bottom of the descent we came across a stock mustering area that caused us a little confusion, but after heading up the wrong valley for a short period, we cut across a ridge to the track that we should have been on, and carried on our merry way, climbing briefly before dropping down towards Graveyard Gully.
The map showed that the next CF was a few hundred metres up GG, on a track below, and not linked to the one that we were on. Keeping an eye out for the track we soon saw it in the Gully below us, and just rode off the track, route 1 through some beautiful smelling heather, over a little drainage ditch and onto the ( it soon became obvious ) little used track.
After riding through a reasonable amount of foliage, and down one particularly steep ( and therefore fun ;-) ) drop, we found the flag attached to a tree and headed out to the junction with our earlier track, where a spectator informed us that we were about 7th on the road, and the first team that had come down the Gully rather than riding the track and turning up the Gully to get the flag - their loss ;-)
We were now just outside Alexandra, which we quickly rode to, passing a couple of cheering spectators, and a couple of Relay competitors having a beer outside a pub, and then rode through the town and down onto the river bank heading North.
The well benched gravel single track wove through the trees on the river bank, and was regularly punctuated by small dips and corners, and by larger dips crossed by bridges, so was a fun ride that kept us entertained, especially as the speed was high given that it was relatively flat.
Unfortunately my speedo wasn't functioning, therefore I was reliant on talking to Kirstine about distances that had been travelled - something I need to fix before our next outing - but she gave the alarm at the appropriate time, and we started looking seriously for the next CF, which materialised after another couple of hundred metres.
Retracing our kayak route from earlier in the day we continued North to pick up the last bike CF at the Clyde Bridge, and then after a bit of brain fade misunderstanding the map, the 2 navigators followed the 2 others into the transition area concerned they were heading in the wrong direction.
The FART has grown an awning for this race, and Brian, John and Helen had obviously decided it need an airing, so we jumped under it to transition to Tramp, and shove some hot food down our necks in preparation for the long ( just over a marathon ) walk ahead.
Heading out of the transition area we were wished well, and were immediately into the first main climb of the day, 400m vertical in a couple of Km, climbing up to Shepherds Flat. Kirstine immediately got her walking pole out, which despite our best efforts we couldn't get to fully extend, but thankfully we were going up so she managed to get some benefit from the short pole.
We climbed up through a little bush into some tussocky farmland, coming out from the shelter of the valley into a howling gale, I suggested a route change that would allow us to stay a little more sheltered by following a valley out, but we decided to stick with the mapped route, staying with the 4 wheel drive tracks, and making the most of the last of the light to get us to the first CP before dark. We managed to set a decent pace across the flat, and quickly found the CP at the airstrip after negotiating a barbed wire fence. As we had approached the road we saw that a team was heading back along it obviously following the same route that Barry had suggested the previous night, out and back to the next CP, and then follow the road out, rather than in to the next CP and off road out from there.
We dropped over the back of the airstrip on to the road that took us to the next CP at a hydro station, and quickly started dropping down the road to Fraser Dam, passing a team coming back up towards us before we reached the plateau at the bottom, and went off in search of the Hydro tower, a fence, and the CP. Finding the fence, Colin and I got lights out and located the CP, punching it through the control card which we were now actually carrying!
Turning around, it was back up the hill, passing a couple of teams on the way, one of which temporarily blinded me leading to a slight ankle twist, so now all 3 of the boys were carrying leg niggles - great! These niggles slowed us down as we tried to jog down Fraser Dam Road, Barry's calf twinge being the worst, but he pushed through it until we arrived at the junction where we had to make a choice - straight on, and about a 10K walk to Alex, or turn right, about 23K, over 500m of climbing, but 2 more CPs. We seem to be much bigger gluttons for punishment this year, so right it was!
Passing some support crew that were camped out waiting for their team we got to find out that the ABs had won yet another test, and then had about a 3K gentle uphill road before the track deteriorated into 4WD and then headed off properly up the hill. We had a couple of nav. moments heading up the hill, but they were all quickly sorted with a bit of common sense, and we made reasonable progress despite the uphill aggravating both Colin and Barry's problems.
The track flattened out across more open, tussocky farmland and we saw a few lights, including a couple of teams coming back towards us, and then we rounded a corner to find ourselves facing 'Castle Rock', an absolutely enormous, pyramidal stone randomly plonked in a field, that must have been 30-50 metres across the base and high, it looked utterly surreal sat there in the middle of a field with our lights playing on it ... almost as surreal as the lone guy from R&R Sport who came up to us here and asked us if we'd seen his team! We were all taking this opportunity to put jackets and extra layers on as the temperature was dropping as the night wore on and we spent more and more time in the wind, and here was this guy out on his own with no maps - I was suddenly very aware of how important the team can be!
We pushed on and dropped down the other side of the rock to pick up our next CP, and then spent about 5 minutes trying to find the track we were going to follow out, which Kirstine did, so we were off once more, cooking with gas and heading on our own path as others seemed to be once more 'out and back'ing this CP.
We sidled around the hill, dropping slightly, and staying on the side that obviously got the least sun, as we found patches of ice and snow in a couple of the gullys - one of the ice patches putting me on my arse as I jumped onto it thinking it was rock in my headlight ;-(
We were wondering about dropping straight down into the valley below us, but made the decision that we'd be best off sticking to tracks to make the going as easy for Barry as possible ( we should, however, have actually asked him, he later said he would have been fine heading bush ), even though the track involved a couple of short, steep uphills which weren't easy going for anyone!
After one particular up, we dropped down the other side to a gate, and then the track disappeared. We headed down in the general direction we thought it should go, and came across various depressions in the grass, goat and quad tracks, but nothing as manufactured as the path we had been following. This, of course, should have been our cue to retrace our steps to our last known good position, but after dropping into and climbing back out of a stream, we decided to combine our earlier plan with our current predicament, and would head down the hillside route 1 between 2 streams, into the bottom of the valley.
This plan rocked for about 2 minutes until we discovered that the cartographer responsible for this section had a great sense of humour, and had omitted the rather important information that the area between the 2 rivers was terraced in a series of 10-20m bluffs. Given that the Alexandra map is literally covered in 'rocky outcrop' markings, it was really disappointing to find the unmarked bluffs here, but after a bit of discussion we decided the sensible thing to do was to re-find the track, and thus we turned around and trudged up the hill for about 20 minutes, as to our right we saw the occasional group of lights heading down the ridge that we wanted to be on ;-(
Relocating the track, we found our way back down to the gate, and edged our way down the hill until Colin's searchlight found the 4WD track continuing off the side of the hill and up the other side, and we were back on track, about an hour down, but at least knowing exactly where we were, thankyou Aldinga Creek!
Climbing up out of the other side of the creek we joined up with the track that we had seen other teams coming down, and accelerated slightly to pick up the team that we could see in front of us. As we approached them, another team was coming up from our left, and they met at a track junction and started a conflab, so we walked straight past them, and for some reason they didn't follow us, so we got down to the road and jogged around Conroys Dam on our own.
Reaching the head of the dam, Colin and I arrived shortly before the others and started looking for the control flag, along with another team's support crew, who had been hanging out in the area when we arrived. After a few minutes Kirstine joined in the hunt as Barry grabbed some shut eye, and we scoured the area for a good ( or bad ) 20 minutes, during which time another team joined us, before eventually finding the flag hidden in the middle of a bush, clipping it, and heading down to grab Barry, hopefully without giving away it's position.
Heading out along Conroy's gully, a team came down from the ridge to our right, which we couldn't understand, and on quizzing them, found that neither could they ;-)
All CPs collected, we now just had to make our way back to the Alexandra camp site to finish another race, and with the better surface, and Barry feeling a lot better after his snooze, we managed to up the pace, and jogged a lot of the 8K, getting through it in just over an hour, to arrive back to our crew hanging out with Richard and a couple of others.
We had lost about an hour to the top teams during the bike ride, and another couple of hours to the locals on the tramp, but still managed to finish 4th/ 7 traverse teams, which was a good result so far from home, in very different terrain to what we're used to, and carrying a few niggles, so all in all a good trip South, special thanks going to Brian, John and Helen, for another slick operation, especially sorting out the bike situation before it became a massive problem!
