Young adventure racers dig deep to take title

Already fatigued and with cramp setting in, the Waimea Adventure racing team of year-13 students, Maggie McLean, Cameron Jones, Mac Karalus and Luke Born dug deep on the home straight to emerge winners of the New Zealand Secondary Schools Adventure Race held in Hawkes Bay over the weekend of April 13,14,15.
“We were all pretty stoked having put in so much effort,” says Cameron.
The authentic adventure race has core disciplines consisting of mountainbiking, walking/running and navigation, and includes rope skills and tube rafting.
Racing over 12 hours, the teams of four faced both physical and mental challenges while covering the scenic course designed by experienced adventure racers.
“The tube rafting was a bit of a highlight for us. We had to make our own raft using four tyre tubes so there was a bit of creativity involved there,” says Cameron.
Using those home-made rafts to conquer a 19km paddle down the Tukituki River which flows from the Ruahine Ranges to the Pacific Ocean, the team were soon sweeping past others whose rafts were not so well-built.
“It was a lot of fun hooning down the river, there were just enough rapids to make it fairly exciting,” says Cameron.
The race is dependent on collecting points from around the course by undertaking random tasks such as sheep drafting, golf, high ropes, abseiling, thistle grubbing, plate painting, stone stacking, team work challenges and puzzles, among others.
It was collecting points that snared the team the victory, as while a number of teams set off on the home biking leg, they opted to hit another checkpoint.
“If we hadn’t taken an extra 15 minutes to get more points, it could have been a different result,” says Cameron.
With points deducted if teams went over the allocated 12 hours to complete the race, the Waimea College team took a gamble, spending an extra 15 minutes on the orienteering course to gain points before managing to complete the final 37km bike ride home with just eight minutes to spare.
Now the team has their sights set on the Hillary Challenge, a five-day adventure race through Tongariro National Park, where they’ll be joined by another four Waimea College students to compete as a team of eight.
“We’re looking forward to it, we had a great time there last year and came second. This year we’re hoping to take out first,” says Cameron.