GODZone
Who are Team Tiki Tour?
Rob Howard / 27.02.2017
Team Tiki Tour have a good lead as they set out on the final paddling stage of the 2017 Godzone Adventure Race. They arrived at the final transition in Kingston on the shore at the Southern tip of Lake Wakatipu at 05.28 after a 13 hour overnight trek across the Eyre Mountains.
They were chased all the way by defending champions Team Yealands Family Wines but stayed ahead and took a more direct route down to the final transition where they arrived in good spirits … but not knowing they were leading! They were very focused and quick in transition, wanting to get onto the water quickly, even after being told they were leading, but they were not sure how far back Yealands were.
The team are ‘Godzone regulars’ but are not a regular team in any other races, and don’t feature on the AR World Series ranking list at all, so to many will be something of an unknown quantity. However, they’ve finished Godzone in 3rd place before and have a lot of local Queenstown knowledge so were expected to finish well placed … now it’s looking like they will win as their lead is substantial and another fine day with calm conditions is predicted for the final paddle.
So who are Team Tiki Tour?
Mike Kelly: This is his 5th time at GZ and he has been competing in multi-sport for about 12 years, including 5 times in the longest day Coast to Coast, 3 of those in the top 10. He has competed in many other multi-sport events, including Gold Rush and Lake to Lighthouse. Originally from Ireland he moved to NZ when he was 9 and is a builder in Queenstown where he lives with his partner Josie and 2 kids.
Floortje Grimmett: Competed with Tiki Tour 2 years ago in Wanaka Godzone when they placed 3rd. Floortje is a very strong female multi-sporter and adventure racer. She recently placed well in the Kepler Challenge, Peak to Peak, Red Bull Defiance and Roy’s Peak Run. She is a 39 year old mum of 2 and works at Outdoor Sports in Wanaka.
Tom and George Lucas are brothers and grew up on a station in Glenorchy. Tom lives in Queenstown with his wife Sophie and 3 kids and has an engineering consulting business in Arrowtown. He's competed in every Godzone and recently in China and Australia with George. George lives in Greta Valley, North Canterbury with his fiancé Maree. He is a sheep and beef farmer who started adventure racing just 3 years ago when he competed in Godzone Wanaka.
You can follow the team on their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/tikitouradventureracingteam/
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