Tough types get down and dirty

Jono Watkins and Nathan Hollyoak use teamwork to try to negotiate mud mountain. Photo / Paul Taylor

Swamp crossings, a spiderweb net, barbed-wire crawls, tunnels, hurdles, a climbing frame, and mud, mud and more mud - that is what competitors faced, at the annual Loaded Tough Guy & Gal Challenge on Saturday.

New Zealand's original mud-run series hosts events across the North Island.

This year marked the 13th year that the Tough Guy & Gal Challenge has been running.

Hundreds of Bay locals braved the cold and the mud to prove their toughness.

Murray Fleming started the event in 2003, at Off Road NZ in Rotorua.

There were 432 competitors who took on the inaugural challenge.

Nine years later seven events were added across the North Island, with 14,000 competitors taking part.

Cure Kids is the official charity of the 2015 Loaded Tough Guy and Gal Challenge Series.

At Cure Kids every day researchers are driven to find cures for life-threatening illnesses that affect many of our children.

Last year Tough Guy participants helped raise nearly $20,000 for Cure Kids.