Rangitoto opens up in marathon, mountain biking first

Total Sport's Bryce Green and Callum McNair checking out the Rangitoto trails. Photo/Supplied

The distinctive cone of Rangitoto looms large on the Auckland skyline, dominating sea views from across the North Shore and Auckland City.

Its image is recreated on logos, badges and posters to represent the city, the region and its harbour.

Many have visited on day trips or as school children, but a new sporting event is opening up the island to a group never seen before - marathon runners and mountain bikers.

It's called The Dual - and promoters are hoping that Auckland will soon embrace it in much the same way the Coast to Coast has become part of the South Island's sporting culture.

And like the Coast to Coast, The Dual's founders hope to bring together a unique landscape, concern for the environment and tough sporting challenges.

It's the first time mountain bikers have been allowed by DoC to ride on the islands.

The Dual name refers to the two islands that the event will be raced on - Rangitoto and its lesser known twin, Motutapu.

Three races being run as part of the first ever Dual on March 28 - a 50km mountain bike ride, a full marathon (42.2km) and a half marathon. Teams of two can also run the marathon.

Total Sport is the force behind The Dual. The sports management company has contracts to run events like the Auckland Marathon, but also puts on its own races, such as the North Shore Coastal Challenge, where competitors run the length of the North Shore's beaches, from Whangaparaoa to Devonport.

Company founder Aaron Carter said it has taken nearly two years of negotiations with DoC and the Motutapu Restoration Trust before the event can go ahead.

By happy coincidence, the Motutapu Restoration Trust was looking for ways to get more people out to the island and raise funds for their ongoing work.

Motutapu is being transformed by the Trust, which hopes The Dual will introduce the island to thousands of people who have previously never thought of visiting.

It has been planting native trees, killing weeds and restoring historic sites on the island for the past 15 years.

And at the heart of the discussions wasn't any potential damage to the island environment, but what kind of damage mountain bike riders might do to themselves, particularly on Rangitoto's volcanic rock.

"Some of the issues revolved around doing this sort of thing in this environment, but it was not really the damage to their tracks, but the damage that could be done to the people on their spot," says Carter.

Mountain bikers falling off and into sharp volcanic rock was a big concern, says Carter.

"Everyone was concerned about it, but the liability lies with us and we have the insurance."

The fear of coming into contact with such rocks hasn't turned people away though, with more than 1320 entrants heading over to the island on March 28.

That's 550 mountain bikers, 600 half marathon runners and 170 marathoners.

Usually banned from both Motutapu and Rangitoto, mountain bikers are proving especially eager to take up the challenge.

"They are naturally iconic... the landscape is important, but the fact is that ordinarily these islands are unavailable for mountain biking, people can catch the ferry and go for a run, but most people don't," says Carter.

He guesses that only 10 to 20 per cent of visitors take the opportunity to run on the islands.

Carter says there's huge room to grow the event, with the possibility of a two-day event being introduced.

Marke Jennings-Temple, president of the Auckland Mountainbike Club, said a large number of riders had signed up for The Dual, and "excitement has been building since the first details were released."

Mountain bikers were always looking for new riding experience, said Jennings-Temple and this new event "offers it by the bucket load".

"This is a great opportunity for mountain bike riders to demonstrate sensitivity to the environment and bio-security issues and to show how well our sport integrates with other sports, in this case, trail running"

Jennings-Temple said he hoped the Dual would become a regular event. The combination of a variety of terrain, views and its location "practically on our doorsteps" made it hard to beat.

For those not so keen to run or ride across the islands, at least 7 ferries are being put on to transport spectators and support crew across to the start/finish line.

One of the founding trustees of the Motutapu Restoration Trust, former Auckland mayor and MP Chris Fletcher, said an event like The Dual was perfect for the island - it to bring new people over to see it for the first time and a way of raising money to keep up the restoration work.

The trust has planted more than 500,000 native trees on the island since 1994. Fletcher said the island - just 15 minutes from Queen St, has a lot of untapped potential for day tourism.

There's a historic homestead on the island, a long history of both Maori and European settlement, including gun emplacements from both world wars.

"We discovered that many Aucklanders do not know the island exists," says Fletcher. "It's an incredible place."