Mission Improbable – Nelson and the Kahurangi Endurance Race

Midnight on Thursday and I’m frantically chucking sports gear and wedding clothes into the back of the car, the sooner I’m done the more sleep I can grab.

My mission should I chose to accept it goes something like this; Up at 5am Friday and drive 12 hours to Nelson, have to get there by 7pm to be at the briefing, sort some gear, grab some sleep and then up at 5:30am for the Kahurangi Endurance race. Hopefully finish by 2pm then in the car and off to a wedding in Takaka at 4pm. Certainly some incentive to race well as it would be frowned upon if I were to be late or worse miss it all together.

Apart from a raging tail wind that saved about $20 on the petrol bill the trip was largely uneventful, a short stop in Christchurch for some food and then off – next stop Nelson. Arriving with a full hour in hand the trip was off to a good start.

Since we were staying at Nathan’s we piled into his car and headed for the briefing. Race organiser Ron was laying down the rules when a question came from the back. “Are you allowed to draft in any section of the race” – Ron’s curt reply – “ Drafting’s for pussies Ken”. I guess that meant no drafting?

Meeting at some ungodly hour in front of the Riwaka pub we all then made our way towards the start line in our cars, the final 30min up to the Mt Arthur car park and the race start was completed in the back of large dump trucks with bails of hay for seats. A new experience already and the race had yet to begin.

On arriving at the start, the conditions were anything but tropical. The warm sunny morning had been replaced by gale force winds and snow flurries – nothing like summer racing huh.

The first leg of the race was through the Kahurangi National park and was a truly spectacular run, good tracks and easy graded hills. Once we popped out of the forest into some of the more exposed areas of the track the temperature plummeted further and the snow set in, by now we were all running in ankle deep snow and after the Balloon hut check point this inturn became knee deep in places. Across an exposed ridge, everyone was slowed to close to walking pace as the wind threatened to rip us from the ridge.

Once off the ridge, the wind abated a bit and it wasn’t long before we were able to see the kayak and Mt bike transition by the Cobb reservoir. At one point you look straight down a track to the transition but this is taped off and competitors have a further 10 minutes of winding track until they hit the access road and run back down towards the transition. This was a spectacular running section and with it open to the public it is must do run if you are in the area.

Once at the Cobb we were straight onto our Mt bikes. This was due to the wind whipping up waves that looked fit for surfing as they disappeared down towards the far end of the lake.

The Mt bike took us to the north end of the lake and then up a short climb to the ridge where it was apparently all down hill to the road bike – and it was, fast gravel roads for the majority and just a touch on the road to finish. A great way to rest the legs for the gutbuster to come, up the Takaka Hill.

Once on the roadie it was a somewhat daunting sight to see 10km of Takaka Hill road making it’s way to the top. The reality was it was actually a great ride with a solid but not brutal gradient, great views and at several locations some great music curtesy of Nathan’s car stereo.

The views of the Nelson bays at the top are beautiful and the ride to the bottom is an adrenaline junkies dream. Fast corners and a good surface makes for a high speed decent – just watch out for the occasional off camber turn and go for it.

Once off the hill it is a short ride to Kaiteriteri where usually the race finishes, but due to the cancelled kayak earlier, we made our way off on a 10 km circuit to finish our race off. With slightly confusing directions for any non local it was just a case of going as hard as possible while try to spot some local landmarks to turn at. With out to many problems I managed to find the split apple rock and second time lucky on the correct buoy at the other end of the section and my first race of the day was nearly over.

Finishing on the beach my race was done but I had another race still to run, off with the smelling racing gear, into the car (with clean clothes on) and back over the Takaka Hill to the wedding.

Results: Made wedding with 30 min to spare, Bride and Groom married, great party.

PS – Truly great race and well worth the trip to do it, if you are planning a trip to Nelson put the Kahurangi Endurance race on the Calender and plan your trip for Mid December. Also had the best weather in the Country that weekend!!!