Coast to Coast NZ for the Royal Hospital for Women

Thanks for your support and a few reflections on our adventure!

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to say a massive thankyou to everyone who sponsored me and share a few reflections of the event itself. We exceeded my sponsorship target raising over $3,300, which will be shared across the Royal's Maternal Fetal Medicine and Newborn Intensive Care Units.

The nerves were high before we set off from Kumara Beach, given neither Will or I really had any idea what we'd signed up to and we quickly realised we were probably the least prepared competitors of the whole bunch. Everyone seemed to either be a professional endurance athlete, have completed the event before, or at the very least had taken a guided tour down the 70km Kayak leg. Anyway we were at the start line and we'd spent a heap of cash on getting there and training so there was no chance we could tell our other half’s we didn’t really fancy it.

At 7am, we set off with a short 2km run from the beach up to the bike transition, collected our bikes and started a 55km cycle to the Mountain Run transition. This leg went well, we formed a large pack of 60 or 70 riders and just stuck ourselves in the middle of the bunch averaging 30km/hr, arriving at the run transition in 1hr 50mins. Still feeling fresh we dropped the bikes, put on our runners and set off on what I’d assumed was going to be a sort of hilly path, taking us to the end of day 1 to meet Kris, Sally and Alfie. Maybe we'd meet them for a late lunch and spend the afternoon chilling in the grass at Klondyke Corner. Not so.

The mountain run was more like a scramble with 17km of steep mountain river to navigate with no paths and over 35 river crossings. Pretty epic, but really hard. Luckily you can drink straight from the river, so there was little chance of dehydration, but it was really slow going, picking lines across the waist deep river and clambering over human sized boulders for 17km. Once we passed Goats Pass we followed a sort of muddy path and then empty river bed for the remaining 15km to the finish. We missed lunch, getting in at around 4.30pm after almost 5hrs of 'running'.

After a pretty poor night’s sleep, a combination of my airbed having a hole in it, not really being able to eat and nerves about the kayak leg the next morning we were up and off again, starting with a 15km cycle down to the start of the kayak. This bit, it's safe to say we were a little concerned about, given we'd done the absolute minimum requirement of white-water training, (2 days, 3 months earlier) on a slow moving river in Northern NSW, Australia. Anyway, once we were moving we settled in and it was fantastic. Stunning, untouched and remote scenery, crystal clear water, huge rock faces to navigate around, including a 35km section called 'The Gorge' with some pretty technical rapids and 100m high cliffs either side. Will and I managed to navigate all of the danger spots without toppling in, but did fall out on two innocuous bends where we were caught out by a joining channel and flipped out of the kayak. After 6.5hrs of paddling we made it to the end, such a welcome sight to see Kris and Alfie, scoff a quick sausage roll and give the blood a chance to get back into my numb bum and legs!

Just a 75km cycle into a strong head wind and we’d reach the finish. The last cycle leg went really well, we managed to form a small group with a Kiwi called Whitey and an odd, quite bossy Swedish woman and the four of us rode as a group all the way to Christchurch, taking it in turns at the front, fighting the head wind and pushing the speed whilst the rest drafted behind. Spirits were high as we neared Christchurch.

Crossing the finishing line at New Brighton Beach was a huge relief and a fantastic sense of achievement, giving little Alfie a cuddle and inhaling a burger made it all worthwhile! 

A huge thank you to our support crew Heather and Nick, they epitomise the Kiwi generosity, after writing on a website notice board that we were looking for a support crew they came to the rescue, driving down from Wellington to follow Will and I around all weekend giving us motivational speeches, shoving gels in our pockets, setting up our bikes and kayak at transitions and collecting our sweaty gear, we couldn’t have done it without them.

The event itself was the hardest physical challenge I’ve done, the Kiwis are bloody fit. The scenery was stunning and the atmosphere throughout was fantastic, with everyone offering each other support to get through the various stages.