Tauranga adventurer to tackle South Pole

By Julia Holmes
"Burning rubber" has taken on a whole new meaning for Jamie Fitzgerald, who has been hauling tyres around the streets in a bid to achieve a New Zealand first.
Tauranga-born Fitzgerald, who together with Aucklander Kevin Biggar won the 2003 transatlantic rowing race from the Canary Islands to Barbados in record time, plans to trek to the South Pole and back - the first mission of its kind.
Teaming up with Biggar once again, the 90-day journey, from November to January, will be the first unsupported return trip by New Zealanders.
That means there will be no aerial drops and no motorised help - all their supplies and equipment will have to be hauled along on sleds weighing more than 150kg.
"There will be no drops by plane and no one will be meeting us halfway to give us a massage and a pat on the back," Fitzgerald quipped.
Hence the tyres.
"We will be towing a sled all the time. We wanted to simulate that. I have four tyres I drag around the street wherever I go. You get a few funny looks."
A former Tauranga Boys' College student, Fitzgerald, 25, has taken a year's leave from his banking job to train and complete the journey.
He said their motivation was threefold.
The pair had been working with adventurer Graeme Dingle to help raise awareness of outdoor pursuits among young people. They wanted to challenge themselves in a different discipline and it would be the 50th anniversary of Scott Base next year.
"New Zealand has a very strong connection with Antarctica ... to celebrate the anniversary we thought it would be a fantastic thing to do ... to carry on that tradition for adventure."
The 2898 kilometre trek will cost nearly $500,000 and take them to the highest, coldest, driest and windiest continent on earth.
Pulling sleds for up to 14 hours a day in temperatures of -40C, it will be one of the longest man-hauls ever attempted.
"It's really easy to get overwhelmed when you think about the big picture ... the cold, the wind. Will we have any arguments trapped together in a little tent? I try and break it down to every little thing, find out as much as I can about every scenario I can so it doesn't seem like such a big deal."
Their journey will be chartered on a website and they will keep in touch via satellite phones through which they will be able to send videos and photos.
Biggar recently spent two weeks near the Arctic circle with an experienced guide testing equipment and will return in May for snow kite training.
Both men will train on the glaciers of the Southern Alps in July and August.
While they are seeking further sponsorship Fitzgerald said it is not only corporates that need convincing.
His partner Kate Robinson and their families, while supportive, are understandably apprehensive about his latest adventure.
"Sometimes I find convincing them is as hard as getting sponsorship. I've given my partner and her family a few little presentations."