Kaikoura Adventure U20 Take on Godzone Chapter 12 Pursuit

Written by Team Kaikoura Adventure U20

From the moment we arrived at registration and briefing, it all started to feel very real. The energy in the room was high, every team buzzing, nervous, and excited about what the next six days would bring. When we finally got our maps, the countdown was officially on. Route planning, last-minute prep, and plenty of advice from Aaron Prince, (our mentor), saw us feeling as ready as we could be. The drive out to Ngākuta Bay was pretty tense; it’s safe to say there were a few nerves in the car.

The team at registration. From left: Max Groer, Finn van Keulen, Henry Lovegrove, Isabelle Schwarzenbach with support crew, David Lovegrove and Jilt van Keulen.

Stage 1 – Multi Activity | Ngākuta Bay to Havelock

Thursday 4:00pm – 8:30pm | 24km

As soon as the start hooter went off, there was a mad rush to get boats on the water. Henry and Isabelle somehow ended up first away - what the heck! It felt so good to finally be racing after months of preparation, training, and sorting logistics.

This first stage was a multi activity: a sea kayak across the sound from Ngakuta Bay to Anakiwa, followed by a trek to Double Bay, and then a packraft paddle to Havelock. Our packraft transition was the fastest we’ve ever done, which saw us jump past several teams and set a great tone early on. With the transition almost in sight, we had to rummage through our drybags for headtorches to make sure they were on by 8.15pm - we didn’t want a penalty this early in the race!

Packrafting out of Double Bay

First on the water in Ngakuta

Stage 2 – Bike | Havelock to Avon Valley Lodge

Thursday 9:00pm – Friday 4:00am | 82km

Rolling out of Havelock, we realised we were leading the pursuit which honestly freaked us out a bit. We deliberately backed things off and kept it cruisey heading toward Linkwater. At the first river crossing, both Finn and Isabelle took a small tumble, making Isabelle curse her decision to ride clips.

There was a bottleneck on the Cullen Creek Track, but it was actually nice being around other teams as we settled into our first night of racing. The climb involved more walking than riding, with fallen trees forcing us to lift bikes more times than we could count. Isabelle had another slightly gnarly tumble down a bank, luckily she seems to bounce well across the rocks.

It was frustrating to reach the top only to realise the downhill was barely rideable. However, further down, the track softened out and soon we were flying along sealed roads heading up the Avon Valley. Finn was battling sleep by this point, but we pushed on to TA, arriving around 4am. Here we squeezed in a 15-minute power nap - mainly because Max was still absolutely pinging and there was no chance he’d sleep.

Riding up the Avon Valley - it just seemed to keep going!

Stage 3 – Trek | Loop trek over Mt Hall and Ferny Gair

Friday 5:00am – Saturday 10:30am

This stage was hot. So hot. Everyone was stoked to be walking again rather than pushing bikes, but the heat and fatigue hit early. By 9am we were already sleepy, and when we stopped for about 20 seconds both Henry and Isabelle fell fast asleep, even with the sun fully up.

The climb toward Mt Hall was tough in the midday heat, pushing close to 30°C. We were thankful to have chosen the river route to checkpoint B instead of the ridge, as it allowed us to stay hydrated in the scorching conditions. We spotted so many goats while following the river before beginning our climb toward checkpoint B, a much bigger hill than expected. Seeing the Mouteka team at the top made it all worthwhile.

A quick river swim helped to cool us down, but Max was struggling with the heat more than the rest of us. A bit of gear shuffling sorted things out, and we pushed on. After a feed of Backcountry meals, we grabbed some sleep in a hut before heading out again at midnight.

Summiting Ferny Gair was followed by a miserable bush bash down to checkpoint D at Lake Alexander. We followed a track for the first half of the descent, before ending up in dense scrub and a slippery, bluffed drop to the river. One final hill later, we reached the last checkpoint and were rewarded with venison burgers from the local farm, our morale was instantly back.

Punching in to TA 3

Always such an energy boost getting to transition

Stage 4 – Bike | Avon Valley to Rainbow Valley

Saturday 11:00am – Sunday 10:00am | 141km

We rolled out of TA 3 around 11 am and were already nodding off on our bikes. Everyone popped a No-Doz and we pumped some music just to keep ticking along. Once the caffeine kicked in, we were flying up the Waihopai Valley, and a sign saying “5 km to sausage rolls” was like a carrot dangling in front of our noses. That aid station was one of the best we’ve ever experienced: sausage rolls, pies, iced mochas, and Red Bull generously provided by the local farm. Fully caffeinated, we had an absolute blast hike-a-biking up the Acheron Saddle. The views and golden hour made this a definite high for all of us.

The descent was slow and technical - more walking than riding - and yes, Isabelle managed another tumble (not even in clip pedals this time). With the stage taking slightly longer than expected, our food was becoming an issue, so finding unopened dehy meals and a few tuna sachets on the riverbank was a huge win!

Once we hit the road, we settled into a good rhythm, with the sunset giving us a much-needed boost. We stopped at 11pm for five hours of sleep in another hut before making solid ground through Molesworth Station in the morning.

A swampy, trackless section slowed us right down, but tunes from our Walkman and speaker kept morale high. The final push along Rainbow Road brought a brutal headwind, but with the end of the stage in sight, we kept chugging along.Max was powered almost entirely by the thought of creamed rice - honestly, whatever works!

Stage 5 – Canyoning | Rainbow Valley

Sunday 10:00am – 11:00am | 2km

This stage began with insane porridge topped with yoghurt and berries, hands down the best porridge we’ve ever had (we love our support crew). We then met our guides, Oscar, Mark, and Lee - the most hype dudes ever!

We hadn’t even made it into the canyon and it was already lining up to be the best stage yet. For most of us, this was our first time properly canyoning, so getting to do it in the middle of Godzone was epic.

The water was pretty chilly, but the vibes were so high we barely noticed. Six abseils, one zipline, and plenty of slipping and sliding later, we reached the bottom. The hardest part of this stage was finishing and not being able to do it all again. It felt like the race had paused and we were just out having fun.

Stage 6 – Trek/Packraft | Rainbow Valley to Butchers Flat

Sunday 11:00am – Monday 3:30pm | 110km

This stage kicked off with an insanely fast transition out of canyoning, so fast it was mostly chaos, and we all felt a bit underprepared heading into the 95km paddle.

The first few hours flew by. Paddling at over 10km/h without really trying made us feel pretty invincible. Unfortunately, this feeling didn't last too long. Just under four hours in, the 40km mark (Wash Bridge) came into sight, with the final grade II/III rapid to go. Isabelle and Max nailed it and laughed as Finn fell out of the other packraft. The laughter stopped quickly when they realised Henry was stuck in a hole and Finn was floating downstream without a paddle.

After a few tense minutes, everyone made it ashore to assess the damage. A paddle was snapped, we lost a full set of maps, and a compass. Could’ve been worse, right? Back on the water, our speed halved. Poor line choices, strainers, and canoe-style paddling didn’t help, and it was clear that people were starting to lose their mojo.

We never thought we’d say it, but we were happy to get darkzoned. Dry clothes (which unfortunately hadn’t been packed in the transition chaos), and a dehy dessert sounded tempting after nine hours on the river.

Thankfully we were still able to walk down the road after the darkzone. Twenty kilometres later we were nodding off, and not even a delicious hot choccy from a local landowner could save us. After a 3.5-hour sleep, we were ready to go again - well, Max was awake and trying to get everyone else up.

The next morning we began the climb toward Mt Royal: 1300m of elevation in just 3km. Steep, but we were surprisingly chirpy. A few Adele songs later, we reached the top and prepared for a 1100m descent, which our knees and feet were far less happy about. Bottles refilled, we powered on toward transition, only to realise on arrival that we’d forgotten to check out of the last TA. Our only real muck up of the race so far! We weren’t stoked, but a two-hour stand-down with a 10-hour lead wasn’t the end of the world. Isabelle reckoned it was “the nicest punishment ever”: two extra hours of sleep.

Realising our mistake as we get to TA 6

Paddling down the Wairau - still with all our paddles

Stage 7 – Bike | Butchers Flat to Pelorus River

Monday 3:30pm – Monday 7:00pm | 27km

We served our two-hour penalty at the start of this stage in a sunny grassy clearing. We were in a roped off zone making it feel like we were in the naughty corner, but we made light of the situation and ate cream-filled brandy snaps before having a snooze. Everybody woke up pretty groggy, though Max said that he enjoyed just being able to chill with no time pressure.

The ride itself was cruisey, rolling down the Wakamarina Valley at golden hour. Just 1.5 hours later we arrived at the next TA at the Pelorus River.

Stage 8 – Trek/Packraft | Pelorus River to Keneperu Head camp

Monday 7:00pm – Wednesday 3:00am | 64km

We felt nervous heading into this stage. It was our longest flat water paddle, first time navigating on kayaks at night, and there was bad weather rolling in.

The caffeine overload started at transition. Isabelle was absolutely firing after a 285mg double shot espresso. We made it to our conservative distance goal for the night in record time and imagined how stoked Aaron would be with our 7km/h packraft average. We kept on pushing, but eventually realised that no amount of Red Bull could stop Henry from falling asleep while paddling. At midnight, Finn came in clutch, and found us a carport to sleep under, staying dry in the torrential rain was pretty lucky.

After about 2hrs of sleep, Finn and Isabelle woke to Max and Henry thrashing around. Somehow, they’d been sleeptalking to each other and convinced themselves they were still packrafting and were about to drown, with the tent pushing them underwater. Henry was thankfully able to save them, holding up the roof of the tent while Max clocked Isabelle in the head a couple times while trying to take her headtorch. Once Max and Henry came back to their senses we were in hysterics, in our sleep-deprived states this seemed like the funniest thing ever.

Waking up the next morning with less favourable packraft conditions was disappointing. Fortunately, we found a good portage which meant we could avoid the howling headwind while leaving Crail Bay. Unfortunately, the good portage ended up being a 20 metre bluff, whoops! With a bit of careful scrambling we managed to get down, but our short cut had definitely become a detour.

Finally, we made it to the start of the trek. Still in hysterics after reliving Max and Henry’s nighttime panic attack, we accidentally missed our turnoff. Pretty quickly we got back on track and began climbing up to Mt Stokes. We were absolutely flying along the ridges, only stopping briefly to appreciate the insane golden hour view from Mt Stokes. Progress slowed right down while navigating the massive bluffs on the descent down the ridgeline, but we kept trucking along to make it to CP18 just as it got dark. The hours that followed became our only major low point of the entire race. We got lost dropping down from the checkpoint, meaning we were back to the relentless manuka scrub. Finally this gave way to bluffs that we somehow got down until we were able to follow a slippery creek to farmland. We definitely weren’t the happiest of chappies. Thirteen hours later, we rolled into TA8 at 2am.

Stage 9 – Final Paddle | Kenepuru Sound to Picton

Wednesday 6:00am – Thursday 9:15am | 26km

We were so excited to be heading out on the final stage. Starting at sunrise, we expected a cruisey sea kayak paddle that would take about 3 hours. Unfortunately the conditions had other plans.

The wind picked up quickly, bringing big swells, heavy rain, and low visibility. Crossing from the north to south side of Kenepuru Sound was genuinely scary. We did our best to stay calm, deciding to paddle into the swell to get to the side we needed to be.
We eventually had a safety boat shadow us, with visibility down to less than 200 metres this was very reassuring. They stayed with us all the way into Te Mahia, where the call was made to stand all teams down until the following morning.

We were the only team able to paddle that morning and the only team to make it past TA8. This meant we were able to hold our lead while everyone else waited it out. Once ashore, morale skyrocketed thanks to hot pies and hot chocolates from the Te Mahia Store, followed by a two-hour sleep curled up in front of the heater. Without their generosity it would’ve been a rough morning, so a big thank you to the storeowners.

Overnight, we were lucky enough to stay at a volunteer’s bach. It was so weird only being an hour away from the finish and yet not being able to continue. It was also strange having a warm shower, a real bed, and a cooked sit-down meal when we were technically still racing.

At 8am on Thursday, the stand-down was lifted. We hopped back in the boats and cruised the final 1.5-hour paddle from Mistletoe Bay to Picton. Our shadow boat even played the trumpet for us, which pretty much summed up the vibes. Spirits were high, with plenty of singing (mostly Adele again), and the finish line in sight.

Rolling in to Picton - so surreal

Enjoying our hot chocolates in Te Mahia

Finish Line – Picton

Pulling ashore in Picton was unreal. We crossed the finish line as the first team home, leading the Pursuit and as the only team to complete the full intended course. It was a pretty crazy way to finish our first Godzone and first expedition adventure race.

A huge thank you to everyone who made Godzone Chapter 12 possible. To the race organisers, the Pure Adventure Charitable Trust and Kaikōura Adventure Race for our free entry, and to our generous sponsors - we truly couldn’t have done this without your support. Thank you to the volunteers out on course for the encouragement, the food, and the constant positivity, and to our incredible support crew for the long nights in order to have our transitions just right. We couldn’t have done this without the wisdom from our mentors, Aaron and Tane.

Finally, thank you to our friends and family who backed us from the get go, and to all the dot-watchers - the reach and support behind Godzone is truly amazing, and we’re so grateful to have been part of it.