It's October already, and the team's last scheduled race of the year has rolled around, culminating our season with the chance to take out the Arrow 24hr series title for the 2nd year in a row, and with our biggest race of the year - 48 hours schlepping around the Mt Somers, Lake Coleridge and Mt Oxford region of Canterbury.
After all the variety that the year brought us in terms of team make up, we would be finishing the season with the same team that we started with back in April and the ARC 24 - Liam, Barry and Shane would be getting beasted by Kirstine Collins, whose usual Bikesmith AR team wasn't making the big trip south from Aucklandi, but without our trusty Helen support crewing, as she had come down with a bug ;-(
The trip started with a ridiculous 03:00 ( yes, that's am ) ferry from Wellington down to Picton, and then a leisurely drive down the coast for Barry and Liam, who picked Shane up in Christchurch, did some shopping and sorting out of gear, then met Kirstine off her plane, and headed out to Mt Somers. After distributing gear all over the accomodation, John and Brian arrived with a car load of support gear, and the usual, now remarkably calm, preparation was all carried out prior to race briefing.
The briefing was the usual affair, warning of the dangers of racing, telling us where to go, and asking for any questions before the 20 odd teams headed their separate ways to plot and plan in preparation for an 08:00 start that for a change would involve a bike ride, rather than a paddle, though the 2 grade 2 river paddles scheduled for the course would easily make up for any anxiety caused by this break in routine!
We had decided to take an alternative approach to the maps for this race, as printing out page after page of high quality colour is a slow affair, we had brought 3 sets of maps with us and were to mark, cut, and laminate, 2 of them. Unfortunately as we had twice as much route to mark the prep still took us till nearly midnight, so I'm not really sure which approach was best, maybe we'll just try and get a faster printer next year, who knows? Either way, we hit the sack at a fairly usual pre-race time, with a big stack of laminated sheets ready for when we got up, and with Kirstine reducing the - mainly road - riding sections to sets of descriptive directions.
The morning did that thing that mornings do, and we mounted up and rode the K or so to the start line as a bit of a warmup, hung around chatting to people and applying sunblock for a while, and then lined up 4th team on the start grid, heading off a minute after Team Moirai.
The first stage would be a 100+K ride on road, gravel, and 4WD track around the Clent Hills ( for anyone reading in the UK, these 'hills' topped out at 1364 metres ), past Lake Heron, round the Palmer and Black Hill Ranges ( 2087 and 2067m ), and down to a camp ground on the Rakaia river, where we would have a short ( 13 or so K ) Grade 2 paddle. After the boats, we'd have about a 5K run to get back on the bikes for about 40 odd K of riding north to Lake Coleridge, where we'd be back on our feet for a 35 or so K tramp up the Harper river, paddle down about 40K of the ( famous for the Coast 2 Coast ) Waimakariri river, a quick 15 or so K on the bike, and finish off with a tramp over Mt Oxford, and 60K on the bikes from Mt Pember to Loburn.
We started off reasonably conservatively, riding along as a tight bunch, and as it was soon obvious that the team behind was catching us, we backed off and formed an 8 person bunch for a bit, riding along quite happily until an enforced stop when my crank decided to fall off! This left us on our own till we arrived at the first check point, where we arrived to see the team in front leaving, and managed to miscommunicate badly amongst ourselves, not only meaning that we were still at the CP when around 5 or 6 teams arrived behind us, but then giving away the location of the CP, and delaying our departure by some time as Kirstine went off to clip the mark that she didn't realise that we already had - a shambles that I take full responsibility for, and which was totally unnecessary at this stage of the season!
Anyway, back on our way with the whole team present and correct, we battled into an increasingly unpleasant northerly, first on the road and then on gravel, having to stop on the exposed Hakatere Heron Rd to don wet weather gear as we hit a well defined and extremely cold and wet front. Arriving at Lake Heron we took the chance, while being afforded some shelter, to sort out a couple of mechanical issues with the bikes before resuming the battle with the elements.
Arriving at Upper Lake Heron, we passed a team that were donning gear at the farm gate, and then watched a team head right while we went straight on across the shingly plain, heading for what we hoped was a visible track cut into the hillside a K or so away, though with the poor visibility caused by the mist and rain, we could well be wrong!
Thankfully we weren't, and after fording a couple of rivers we climbed briefly out of the valley and skirted along the edge of it, on a nice, muddy, thoroughly enjoyable if it weren't so wet, 4WD track. Unfortunately as well as the mud, which caused Kirstine a nasty fall that knocked her gears out of kilter, it was also rocky, and I was soon fixing a puncture with cold, wet, muddy hands, while the rest of the team tried to keep warm and see if they could get Kirstine's bike functioning a bit better. We were only passed by one team at this point, and we soon set off after them, trying to give Kirstine's equipment some relief by towing her, and just generally keeping our heads down and battling into the wind and rain.
Eventually, the slight, 18K climb came to an end, and we looked down on the Rakaia river, and a descent that would take us round the back of 'Whaleback', over a scree slope that spread out for about 1.5Km. This was large, black ( volcanic? ) scree that had a vaguely smooth path across it where the 4WDs obviously passed. Excellent fun ;-) The high tyre pressures meant we were pretty safe from punctures, and the 120 or so mm of suspension on the front soaked up most of the decent sized water bars that keep you honest every few hundred metres as we enjoyed the drop that we'd spent about an hour paying for!
With about 70K down, all that was left was another couple of hours of dragging ourselves along a gravel road that gradually dropped alongside the river, and to find our way down to the campsite where Brian and John would be waiting for us with the boats!
It's over 2 months ago now, so I have absolutely no recollection of the transition, but the kayak down the Rakaia was great fun, with Barry and I chasing Shane and Kirstine down the braided section, both of us overtaking another team and pulling away from them, me learning to pay attention while kayaking as my looking at the interesting cliff formations rather than the water led us straight through a couple of wave trains. Entering the Gorge, Shane stuck to the sensible lines while I took us in search of interesting water, often urging Barry to 'paddle now, really, _paddle_' on a number of occasions, the most interesting one involving us being pushed way wider than I anticipated and dropping off a good sized ledge with a fair splash, and a decent support stroke.
We were all very impressed with the way the boats ( with their river rudders ) handled, and despite my silly antics, never felt unsafe, so we were very surprised to later find that not one, but _both_ Groundworks Queenstown crews had fallen out of their Hypernovas on this section, and that only about half of the teams got to paddle as it was replaced with a drive some time after we had got on the water.
Jumping out of the boats at the designated bridge, we were soon into our tramping gear, and heading back along the riverside on the cliff track. About 1.5K in we looked down to see what looked remarkably like an upside down Kayak floating down the river, and a little later saw a couple of boats pulled up on the bank - there was nothing we could do to help from 50 or so metres up, so we just carried on our way, considering that we may actually have been quite lucky to get away without a dunking during the last section!
We were looking out for a paddock with horses in it, and eventually found it, along with the check point, and thence the route into the Terrace Downs golf club/ lifestyle development, where we passed some awesome stone houses built around a lovely landscaped golf course ... nice holiday digs if you can afford it I guess! After regrouping following use of the club's facilities, we jogged out to the road where Brian and John were unloading the bikes, so we grabbed them, sorted out our shoes and lids, and headed off on the alternative course, up towards Lake Lyndon, rather than Coleridge.
We started off with about 15K straight north along Coleridge Rd, before hanging a right climbing up through the Acheron onto a gravel road, which we followed round to the North East onto the Lyndon Road, and, as darkness was just falling, we arrived at Lake Lyndon, giving it a final burst of energy as we could see vehicles in the transition at the far end of the lake, well away from the couple of Baches at the South end of the lake, from whence camera flashes came as we passed.
We checked in, and were given a piece of paper with our arrival time on it, we were to be allowed to leave Cass an hour after that time, to start the alternative tramp over Cass Saddle, down Hamilton Creek, and then joining up with our original route up the Harper river out to the Waimak and onto the paddle. Brian and John reckoned that this tramp would take us well under the 11 hours that we had before the dark zone would be lifted on the river, and so had booked a room at the Bealey Hotel for us to get some sleep in between the tramp and the paddle. Our fantastic support crew had also set up a drying rack and provided us with hot food, so we wolfed that down while changing into dry, warm clothes, stretched, and got some rest.
About 40 minutes after we had arrived, we started packing everything away for the drive to Cass, loaded up into the vehicles with all our gear ready to hit the ground running at the far end of the drive, and pottered over to the restart.
At Cass we were informed that we should go and get some sleep as the race was being broken ;-( Apparently the incessant rains meant that the Hamilton and Harper were well up, and the 100Kmh+ winds meant that mounting a helicopter based rescue would be nigh on impossible, so the overnight tramp had been cancelled. Add to this that the Waimakariri was flowing at about 450 cumecs, well over twice the cancellation limit for the Coast 2 Coast, and our paddle was also off, so our race would restart at 09:00 at Woodstock - well done guys for sorting out accommodation!
While the rest of the team headed to the Bealey, John and I headed up to Arthur's Pass to get some phone reception, and inform Helen, Jill, and a few others of what was going on with the race and with us.
A good night's sleep was followed by a nervous drive as the FART was running low on go juice, but we made it to Woodstock all together, got the bikes out and set up, and waited under the trees in our waterproof jackets as the boys drove off to the tramp transition, and left us to hang around chatting, and marvelling at the Air Force team who were in their full heavy duty Camo all weather gear, trousers and all, until Richard gave us the off.
We started on a gravel road, that had a nicely worn tire track in it, with deep gravel either side, so I surmised that people were unlikely to be too concerned about the pace early on and took the lead at what I felt was a comfortable warm up. I was right, no-one came past for the few K of gravel, and then when the tarmac started, we managed to maintain a decent bunch, the team sticking close by as stronger teams hit the front and did the work.
There was a decision point coming up, where we could take either of 2 left turns, the first was the slightly easier, but if the bunch carried on to the 2nd, then it would save us effort if we stuck with them, so I made sure we all knew the skinny, and we watched Merrell, turning hard left and sprinting after them as they took the preferred turn, and watching Ground works ride off as they were heading for the 2nd.
We stayed with Merrell for a few more turns, and dropped slightly off the pace heading up the hill towards the TA, where I noticed we were alongside the Groundworks boys, noting to them that there obviously wasn't a lot of difference between the routes, they told us that they wouldn't know, they'd turned around and worked their way back up through the bunch after working to catch back up to us!
The FART was beautifully positioned for a fast transition, but for some reason the 12 hours of preparation that we'd had since Lake Lyndon apparently hadn't been enough, and after watching several teams leapfrog us, we set off at a jog in midfield, having thrown away a good couple of minutes sorting out stuff like food, that really should have been done the night before.
There were 3 options for this tramp, the shortest route was straight over the top of Mt Oxford, the longest was also the flattest and best maintained, and involved following the Wharfedale track, while the one we chose was the middle ground in both length and climbing, going up and down a ridge to the West of the Mt Oxford peak.
We were making reasonable progress jogging along the side of the West Branch of Coopers Creek when Barry went down with a yell as he slipped on a piece of board, twisting his ankle as he went. Getting Voltaren into him immediately and lightening his load, we set off again, maintaining a decent enough pace till we came to the ridge. Here we slowed drastically, but a sharing of the towing loads got us back up to pace, and we completed the climb with only a huge amount of groaning and swearing ;-)
Along the top of the ridge we were a bit surprised about how poor the track was, but not overly concerned by it, our track following is pretty well dialled, and the terrain and tracks were pretty similar to the Tararuas, so we made OK progress, even if it wasn't as quick as R&R sport who came past us on the way down the hill, and obviously took off as we felt our way down the slippery and fire damaged hillside to meet up with the Wharfedale at the bottom.
Here we upped our pace a bit and jogged along towards the next Check point, a manned CP at the site of the old Townshend huts, where Kirstine took the opportunity to fill her empty bladder, we all emptied stones and the like from shoes, and then we were off, walk-jogging along a 4WD track out along the Townshend river valley. This was a tense time as Barry was suffering with his ankle, and Shane was starting to have problems with his shins, while we were in a wide, flat valley that would allow us to be seen by any teams that could be closing in on us.
Thankfully our continual looks back showed that no-one seemed to be gaining on us, and the coercion of the team situation kept us all moving along at a shuffle or better, often on the grassy verge of the metalled track, to make the going easier underfoot, and eventually we saw the hill saddle that indicated our last climb over a small rise to drop down to pick up our bikes for the last time!
Coming out of the farmland we could see the transition area across a paddock with some sparse trees in it, and tried to put on a final spurt up to the stile that would see us into the check in area for our penultimate meeting with the FART.
The awning was up, the bikes were lined against the fence, and our gear was all laid out ready to go, so go we did, mounting up and heading out along Lees Valley Rd as a convoy of 4WD enthusiasts rumbled in the opposite direction.
As was becoming the norm for this race, we hunkered down into a headwind, this time combined with the annoying judders produced by a fairly badly maintained gravel road, and quickly spread the tow ropes out in order to make sure we stayed close together and wasted as little effort as possible.
After 17 K of slowly rising battle the road steepened a little more for the climb over Okuku Saddle, and as we ground our way up, the weather worsened until we reached the saddle, and got slammed by about another 10Kmh of wind, this time with added rain ... joy!
We briefly enjoyed the downhill, and then once more began the trudge, across 4WD track that was crossed with a few gates, and was much harder going than the previous Saddle, though as we crested Lees Pass we realised how much fun it had been, as we were hit by another stronger wind, throwing a higher intensity of rain at us.
Another decent downhill brought us to a slow 180 degree turn that I hoped would bring the wind round to a tail wind, but there was no sign of it as the suffering continued, and we stopped to transfer tow ropes to replace one that had snapped earlier. Apparently this move in tow ropes energised the team as we all arrived at the next crest about the same time despite the lack of towing, and headed into Ashley Forest, and the climb up to the Okuku Pass slightly more sheltered from the rain and wind (that was somehow still coming from our fronts), but now making slower progress due to Barry's bike continually jumping out of gear!
Coercion, swearing, pushing, and a bit of towing got all of the bikes up to the top our final crest, and secured our final CP, before the downhill section that brought us out by the forest camp, and the familiar surroundings of the final transition of the 2005 Christchurch Arrow race. Thankfully this time it wasn't 06:00, and our gear was not developing a layer of ice as we rode past, and out onto the road for the final 15 or so K to Loburn North, where we were once more to finish an adventure race, and be reunited with our crew.
So, that was 2006! We'd completed all 7 of the races that we had started, we'd tried to do a couple of 48s, but ended up with a 12 hr race followed the next day by a 9hr race, we'd been helped out by 5 great friends on support crew - Stephen, Nyree, John, Brian and Helen - had raced with 4 guys - Colin, Shane, Barry and Liam - and 4 girls - Wendy, Suzette, Wally and Kirstine - and had succesfully defended our 2005 Arrow series title not only by turning up to every race, but by actually pushing and racing at those events.
2007 promises to be a different beast, being based almost entirely on preparation for our first expedition race - XPD in the Whitsundays in August, not only is this race 5-12 days long, it is also going to be unsupported, and is going to take place in a totally different environment ( heat, sand and poisonous creature wise ) to anything we have experienced to date. Roll on 2007 ;-)
