Spring Challenge

The iconic Women’s Adventure Race turns ten-years old when it will be held in Golden Bay on Saturday. Having been staged in different locations each year throughout the South Island, Race Director Nathan Fa’avae commented it felt appropriate to have it at the very Top of the South Island for the tenth edition. 

This year also celebrates the largest field the event has had, with 450-teams (1350-participants), every year the event has steadily grown but this year it was capped with a maximum of 450-teams. 

Event Director Jodie Fa’avae explained that the demand for the event was very high with approximately 600-teams vying for the 450-spaces. The event sold out in 2-days when the entries opened in April. This makes it the biggest Adventure Race in the world and the fact that it is only women is quite incredible. 

The event which contains mountain biking, hiking, rafting and navigation, has teams of three women race on one of three course options, the 3, 6 and 9-hour events. These are projected winning times so teams can take up to double that of the winners. The course is open for 20-hours with teams racing into the night. The different events transpire to beginner, intermediate and advanced. There is also a short canoe stage in this years event. 

Nathan Fa’avae has had an illustrious career as a semi-professional and professional Adventure Racer, his team Seagate, New Zealand’s top ranked squad and current World Champions, recently won the final round of the Adventure Racing World Series in France which sets them up well for the World Championships in Australia, staged in early November. The Spring Challenge was Nathan’s idea when setting up his professional events management company in 2007. Somewhat fitting, Fa’avae’s major break through in the sport was winning the Southern Traverse adventure race in 1999 which started in Golden Bay. He was also influential in hosting and designing the Godzone Adventure Race which passed through Golden Bay in April. 

This is the third time the event has been held in the Fa’avae’s home, the Tasman region, in 2009 at Nelson Lakes and 2010 in Motueka. 

He explains “Adventure Racing is typically a 4-person team with the ruling being it must be mixed gender, which often transpires to 3-men and 1-woman in a team. I had a sense that more women would be interested in adventure racing as a sport but joining a team with 3-men may not be as inviting. I wanted to run an all women’s adventure race with the hope that it introduced more women to the sport and offered outdoor challenge opportunities for them. I decided a 3-women team would be a manageable size to organise and I replaced kayaking with rafting. Kayaking is the more common adventure race water discipline but it requires more expertise, rafting is easier and safer as we use professional guides on each raft, plus it opens up more scope for places the race can go.” 

The rafting stage in Golden Bay will be serviced by 75-qualified guides, each doing three trips. The rafting Director is Tim Marshal from Ultimate Descents in Murchison.  

Jodie Fa’avae adds “Golden Bay has been an excellent choice of venue for our 10th year. The local people have been incredibly welcoming and supportive, especially the land owners who have opened their private land for the event. There’s no benefit to them to have people race on their land, especially as spring is their busiest time, but they see it as a positive thing for their community, it’s awesome.”

The course is kept secret until Friday, teams will only have about 12-hours to digest the exact routes they’ll be racing on and to plan accordingly. Nathan is the course designer and says teams can expect a wilderness feel to this years event. “One unique aspect of Golden Bay is you don’t need to venture far and you’re in very remote places, I had some epic experiences checking out places for the race. The scenery is majestic and if the weather is fine, parts of the course have expansive views over Golden Bay. This years events are not long in distance compared to some other races, but the navigation this year is more technical, I expect the strong navigating teams to do well this year.”

The event has attracted teams from throughout the South Island and a few from the North Island. The majority of teams are from Canterbury, Nelson, Tasman and Marlborough. Each team has a support crew, about 2000-people are expected to attend the event. 

While the race is largely focused on participation and personal challenge, it is also a legitimate sporting competition and that integrity is important for the Fa’avae’s to preserve. “While we don’t want the event to get dominated by competition, it is a race and there are strong teams coming for that reason. I think we have found a winning balance catering for the elite female athletes and the first timers, each year our field age range is from about 13-65, but we have also had a few World Champion adventure racers take part (Elina Ussher, Sophie Hart).

There are 8-teams entered in the 3-hour school teams which contains some teams of 12 and 13-year olds. Also in the youth sections are 6-teams in the 6-hour Junior race. These two events cater for junior and senior secondary school students and they always contain some exciting racing. The 6-hour event is the biggest category with many highly competitive teams with a few previous winners lined up again. 

The 9-hour event is the arena of the elites and once again many of New Zealand’s top adventure sport athletes are fielding teams, in what should be a close competition. Nathan’s predictions favour the strong navigation teams and he thinks Team El Equipo from Christchurch will be strong contenders to win, with ace navigators Lara Prince, Georgia Whitla and Emily Kelly. Team Torpedo7 (Susie Wood, Anja McDonald, Eloise Fry) who have won the event previously will feature and likely to be race leaders throughout the day, especially on the biking stages. Team Rebel Warriors (Kym Skerman, Nic Leary, Naomi Whitehead) are experienced athletes and have a good mix of navigation skills and physical power. 

The 9-hour veteran competition will also be close racing with a number of teams of similar ability. Nelson based Cinderella & the Ugly Sisters (Lynley Coventry, Jane Orbell, Jane Martin) will be a fast team and if they navigate well will be a favourite to win. Team Peak Flow (Jane Lambert, Karolyn Dunn, Sally Lattimore) are strong navigators and the course will suit them. Other teams to look out for tin this division will be Super-Charged, Team Tussock and Wine Loving Cruisers. 

Being a major event does not come without the spoils of success. The event sponsors have pitched in to offer a prize pool of $60,000 worth of product and give aways. 

Torpedo7, Merrell, McCashins, Bluebridge, Tineli, Buff, Camelbak, Yealands Wine, Bowater Toyota, Ems Power Cookies, Pics Peanut Butter, Absolute Wilderness Freeze Dried Meals



Course information will be loaded to the event website on Friday. 

www.springchallenge.co.nz