Athletics: New trail race in Kaimai ranges

Stunning Bay of Plenty scenery will be the setting for a new adventure race known as The Goat Goes Bush Kaimai on Saturday morning.

The event is a 17km inland bush run that starts at the spectacular Wairere (Flying Water) Falls on the western side of the Kaimai range and finishes at the Aongatete Lodge in the Kaimai Mamaku Forest Park.

The terrain includes 800m to 1000m of vertical climbing that will not be for the faint-hearted and the event forms part of a new NZ Triple Crown of three premier trail runs that double up as the NZ Trail Running Championships.

The other two are the Great Cranleigh Kauri Run and the original Tongariro Goat run.

One of the race favourites for Saturday's Kaimai race is Chris Morrissey from Tauranga, who finished second in last year's Tongariro Goat.

The 37-year-old has been competing in off-road runs for 20 years and predicts the Kaimai event will be different to any others he has done in New Zealand.

"I think this one will be totally different to the Tongariro run as it is all under bush and tree cover," said Morrissey. "There will be plenty of stairs to run up, some rock hopping, and along the top between the falls and the high point, the track is very rooty with dense bush, so you have to concentrate the whole time. It is quite a cool track.

"The biggest challenge is staying focused for the whole race as there is not much of a chance to relax and no easy running where you don't have to watch your footing."

Morrissey would love to be the first winner of what is expected to become a landmark event on the Bay of Plenty sporting calendar.

"I don't go into races thinking I am going to lose and always have aspirations to win. There will be tough competition from the other guys, but I am hopeful," he said.

Race director Jason Cameron says the Kaimai course might be different to the original course but the races have plenty in common.

"The aspects that make the original Tongariro event course so great are all there with this one - the toughness, the technical terrain, the waterfalls and river crossings, the vertical climbing metres and the remote rugged setting," he said.

"The experience will, however, be different and we wouldn't be surprised to hear plenty of 'that was awesome but very different to the original' comments at the finish line."