Finish Line Celebrations

Rob Howard / 04.03.2015

More teams continue to cross the finish line this afternoon, both full and short course, finishing under bright sunshine in Wanaka, most recently Team ‘You Can Cry But Keep Moving’ and they were followed by 3^rd placed full course finishers Tiki Tour.

Tiki Tour had by far the biggest group of supporters with them as they walked across the rugby ground to the finish.  Surrounded by their partners and young families they had a rousing reception on the finish line, and spent a long time catching with those who’d followed their progress all week.  “We’ve all been on the edge of our seats,” was one comment, as the team has changed positions often, but in the end won out with both speed and persistence to claim a spot on the podium.

“I am so delighted with the results,” said Floortje Grimmett. “We’ve not all raced together before, but we have raced against each other and had some good results. We all have families and jobs and thought we’d give it a go and in my head I hoped we’d get in the top 10, so 3^rd is amazing for us.”

While these teams were coming in the wind had strengthened out on the lake and teams who had gone out to the furthest checkpoints, before the course was shortened, were finding it difficult. Team Bivouac were stopped for a time out near Mou Wahu island and Chimpanzee Bar also beached for a while before the coastguard went out to assist the safety boats and escort them in, just to be sure everyone was safe.

The next short course team to finish were Irish/UK team DAR Dingle who drew up on the beach just before 17.00 and all hugged each other as soon as they got out of the boats, as much in relief as celebration. “That headwind today has been phenomenal;” said Noel O’Leary, “whichever way we turned it came with us!”

Cas Bullard added, “It was amazing to see kayaks disappear completely behind waves.”  She added, “That last bike ride was fantastic, the best I’ve ever done.”

This was the short course ride and Race Director Warren Bates is happy his short course teams are happy. “The short course route is often an afterthought and even more often a dull ride back to HQ, but the route we took is a great ride and teams seem to be enjoying it, even though there are a lot of river crossings.”

Chris Caulfield recalled one such crossing.  “There were 3 teams at one river crossing trying to choose a way across and then the big South African racer (Sakkie Mayer) arrived and just ploughed in with his 3 team mates hanging on to him! We were all open mouthed! Then we followed them.”

The Japanese team Real Discovery, who’ve done their own version of the short course this week, were next ashore, delighted to finish.  Of all the teams they enjoyed the beer the most, downing the contents of glasses quickly and then amazed at the size of top-up bottle, which prompted beers to be poured over heads and thrown in the air.  They were a very happy team.

You can follow the race live at http://godzoneadventure.com/ and see more updates and lots of pictures on our Facebook Page at https://www.facebook.com/SleepMonsters

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