Inaugural Absolute Wilderness Adventure Race

Press Release / 23.04.2014

Nathan Fa'avae is promising testing terrain to the 66-teams entered in the inaugural Absolute Wilderness adventure race being held in Murchison on Saturday.

The new event offers two categories, the Adventure Course (ADV) and the Expedition Course (EXP). The ADV is aimed at beginner to intermediate level racers with the winning time designed between five and six hours. The EXP caters for advanced level athletes with the winning time targeted at 12 hours. The event contains both male and mixed gender three-person teams.

Rafting, hiking and mountain biking are the core disciplines with navigation required for the teams to get through the course.

Race director Fa'avae has been very happy with the interest received and the courses on offer in the Murchison area.

"We've got 200 people racing and from all over the South Island," he said. "It's not an easy time in the event industry to launch new concepts so we're really pleased with the amount of teams taking part, especially given the short notice we decided to run the event."

Lining up for the race are some of the best adventure racers in the country.

There is expected to be some exciting racing between Nelson teams R&R Rockin Raccoons (Trevor Voyce, Josh Findlay, Ingrid Richter), Not Normal (Brent Edwards, Nick Ross, Sophie Hart) and Beauty & the Beasts (Dan Moore, Ash Whitehead, Naomi Whitehead). These teams are racing in the mixed division but will be highly competitive in the overall standings.

The men's teams will likely be a battle between Tineli Tramping Team (David Ayre, Sakkie Meyer, Dyane McKnight) and Goldrush (Tim Pearson, Nathan Peterson, Chris Burr).

Team Subway may race but have recently returned from an event in China and could be carrying some small injuries. The team of Richard Ussher, Elina Ussher and Stuart Lynch will be a strong contender if they are on the start line come Saturday morning.

One exciting race will be the inclusion of a secondary schools teams section. Waimea College leads the region's schools in adventure racing and they have some strong teams entered and are expected to be racing closely.

Team Lifestyle Accounting Young Guns (Nathan Sturrock, Lachlan Brownlie, Jackson Carver) will be very hard to beat if they can string together a strong race. They won't have it all their way, though, with the Waimea College teams chasing hard. The school has entered Waimea Atomic Tangerine (Shanee Anderson, Laura Anderson, Ryan Spencer), Waimea Seadoor (Katie Malthus, Michelle Heslop, Elliot Kennedy) and Waimea Seafence (Libby Malthus, Ali Burrell, Hayden Squance).

"Murchison is a great location for adventure sport, there are so many superb white water rafting rivers surrounding the area plus having Kahurangi and Nelson Lakes National Parks bordering the town makes it really easy for adventure escapades," Fa'avae said.

"I think all the participants will get to see some wonderful landscapes and areas they wouldn't have known were there. I'm hoping the worst of the cyclone weather has passed and we can run the original course routes."

For more information see: absolutewilderness.co.nz

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