New Plymouth Girls' High School and Tauranga Girls' College, both staunch supporters of the event, return for another year and will face tough competition from the Egmont Athletics quartet and the Feilding Moa team.
The two-person walk section, with each person completing the 4800m lap, has attracted 20 teams. On paper, Egmont Athletics and Lake City look likely to be the top placers.
Two running teams and three walking teams from event sponsor Red Stag Timber have entered.
Overall, 64 teams have entered, well down on the 97 entries received last year, mainly due to the drop in numbers in the two youth sections.
Flooded areas in the Scion Tree Nursery complex have necessitated a course change and this has reduced the previous lap distance of 5000 metres to around 4800 metres. There has also been a need to increase the distance for the youth grade athletes from about 3000m to around 3200m. Because of these changes, no team lap or individual lap records will be broken.
The 4800m participants set off at 10am, followed two minutes later by the youth teams. There will be a prizegiving held adjacent to the Redwoods Visitors Centre and i-Site at about 1pm.
Although there is restricted access along Long Mile Rd and the Redwood Grove during the event, it does not preclude members of the public from the area. The public is welcome to come and watch but will need to take care not to impede the participants' progress.