Torpedo 7

GODZone is one of the highlights of the year and the 2017 race didn’t disappoint. The terrain in New Zealand lends itself to adventure racing and the Queenstown course this year for GODZone was no exception, it was stunning and achieved the goal of showcasing the area. We were incredibly lucky with the weather, which made the experience, even more enjoyable. GODZone always manages to push the boundaries of adventure, giving racers that exhilarating feeling of adrenaline at times, be it traveling down a river, along a ridge, or down a gnarly descent on the bike. A high point for me was hearing and then seeing a native NZ Owl the Morepork (Ruru) appearing out of the dark on the ridge in front of us.

Stepping up to GODZone is a great opportunity to spend more time outdoors, may mean having to spend more time on logistic planning, coming up with more of a plan for sleep and race strategy, and sorting transition boxes will be a little more complex. But it is all worth it to spend more time on course. If a team has enjoyed taking part in the GZ Pursuit, I am sure that they would be ready to step up to the challenge of GZ Pure. It is accepting that as a first time racing Pure, there will be mistakes made, but not race ending. The team can learn from these mishaps and be more successful next time. It is having the team spirit and motivation to carry on and find that you can still finish and do well, as it is likely other teams are also having similar problems.

GODZone presents a fantastic opportunity to see the most stunning parts of New Zealand, that would be difficult to see as a tourist. Giving the teams the chance to travel over terrain that is very hard to get access to, either logistically or because it is on private land. New Zealand is designed for adventure racing and provides teams with the best adventure experience exploring peaks and valleys, where few other people have travelled. The kayaks and canoes provided at God Zone are a dream to use compared to what you often will get when racing in other countries. The race is very well organised, which means the quality of the GODZone product is very good for all those taking part.