Three from Gisborne and Wairoa in Traverse field

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

THREE local athletes are taking part in the GODZone Traverse, a multi-day expedition race across the South Island whose competitors are close to the midway point.

Wairoa son and pro athlete Sam Manson — who was fifth in the Coast to Coast — is in Team Topsport (team No.7). After three days they were equal-fourth of 64 teams on the leaderboard last night in the longer 710-kilometre Pure race. They were four hours and 40 minutes behind the leaders.

Gisborne veteran athletes Amy Spence and Shane Clapperton are in Team #hear4u (team No.104) with Pete Blake and Paul Button on the slightly shorter Pursuit course (643km). As of last night they were 11th of 18 teams on the leaderboard, 15 hours and 19 minutes behind the leaders.

The race will end this week. Competitors in the Pure race traverse the island from Jackson Bay in the west to Brighton Beach, just south of Dunedin, in the east.

The Pursuit race starts with a paddle in Milford Sound and merges with the Pure route at Glenorchy. GODZone is rated the world's biggest expedition race. Teams navigate over rafting, trekking, mountain biking and kayaking legs.

The Pursuit course includes 402km of biking and 129km of trekking.

Both Spence and Clapperton are experienced multisporters, Spence in the Coast to Coast and Motu Challenge, among others, and Clapperton in the Motu Challenge and assorted triathlons. But this sort of racing is a different animal entirely.

Former All Black World Cup-winning captain Richie McCaw and his iSport teammates, Rob Nichol, Jo Williams and Tim Sikma, were evacuated by helicopter off the GODZone course in the Fiordland National Park yesterday afternoon with a team member suffering ill-health.

GODZone operational headquarters confirmed the team had been airlifted from CP4 at the Olivine Hut, high in the Pyke River area on the Main Divide and flown out to Glenorchy to meet up with their support crew.

Up until last night, race support personnel had conducted four helicopter medical extractions from Stage 3 of the 710km course, and two teams were walking out to the Hollyford shelter to meet their support crews.

GODZone race director Warren Bates said it showed the difficulty of the terrain over which teams were travelling.

“Days 2 and 3 have been particularly arduous for some teams, and when you're load-bearing and carrying a lot of weight with food, pack rafts and other essentials, it can be a shock to the body,” Bates said.

“We are seeing quite a few ankle, leg and knee injuries on this very steep and gnarly country.

“It will be disappointing for those teams having to withdraw at this early stage of a nine-day race, but some will be able to join up with others who have lost teammates and then carry on unranked.”

At the front of the field, world champion adventure racing team Avaya — Nathan Fa'avae, Sophie Hart, Stu Lynch and Chris Forne — continued to charge ahead yesterday.

“Avaya have not put a foot wrong yet,” Bates said.

“It took them over 48 hours to get through the 155km packraft and trek over the Main Divide.

“We can see on the GPS tracker that since starting GODZone at midday to Sunday afternoon, Avaya have stopped for only four or five hours' sleep, which they had on Saturday night up at CP6 above the descent down to the Dart River.”

Bates said that was a common sleep strategy for the returning champions. They liked to push out in front from the start and race with no other teams around them.

“We now have the Pure field split right apart with Avaya having a solid lead and teams Tiki Tour, Topsport and Ataraxia Macpac doing their best to hang on behind.”