A total of 230 firefighters from 58 fire brigades in New Zealand took part in the race up 47 flights and 1029 steps of the Sky Tower.
It was the first time the Cromwell Fire Brigade had participated. It entered a team of six in the event during the weekend and raised $10,250 for the New Zealand Leukaemia and Blood Foundation. The total was the third highest raised.
A team of seven firefighters from the Alexandra Fire Brigade also took part, adding another $1500 to the total of $90,000 raised for the foundation.
Cromwell firefighter Paul Bisset had the top individual time of the Central Otago firefighters, reaching the 51st floor in 13min 10sec.
The best individual time overall was 10min 58sec, with the longest run reaching 27min 37sec.
‘‘You're breathing in through an oxygen mask with breathing apparatus on your back. You're fully kitted out with firefighting equipment, about 22kg of extra weight - it gets pretty hot in there,'' Mr Bisset said.
‘‘When you're running up you've got to pace yourself and the breathing, because you don't want to run out of air.''
One of the Cromwell firefighters did run out of air on the 44th floor and required a replacement oxygen cylinder from the team's support person.
‘‘It's hard, it's very hard. I've done a few biking events, gut busters and the likes and it's nothing compared to that - it's all over in 13 minutes,'' Mr Bisset said.
The event started with a 200m sprint along the streets of Auckland before coming in on the fourth floor of Auckland's Sky Tower stairwell. The firefighters then had to slog it to the top.
After the individual event, including runs for masters (aged 40-plus) and grand masters (aged 50-plus), there were relays for teams of three, on the same course.
Mr Bisset said Saturday night was ‘‘magical'' when they saw how much money had been raised by the firefighters and their supporters.
‘‘We've been raising money since December and it's been the Cromwell community that supported us.''
- Central Otago firefighters' times: Paul Bisset (Cromwell) 13min 10sec, Wayne Hill (Alexandra) 14min 02sec, Mark Hutton (Alexandra) 14min 21sec, Brent Anderson (Cromwell) 14min 30sec, John Searle (Cromwell) (masters) 15min 04sec, John Mawhinney (Alexandra) (masters) 15min 22sec, Kevin Malcolm (Alexandra) (masters) 16min 16sec, Phil Ryan (Cromwell) 16min 44sec, Roydon Cullimore (Cromwell) (masters) 17min 11sec, Clark McNaughton (Alexandra) 21min 15sec, Phil McKenzie(Alexandra) 21min 56sec.
