Fraine's comments came during a swim session for elite triathletes from around the world who are training at high altitude at the Snow Farm and in Wanaka before their next Olympic qualifying bid in Sydney in April.
Last night, at the Triathlon New Zealand annual athletes' dinner at Oakridge Resort in Wanaka, the group celebrated the achievements of New Zealanders Kate McIlroy, Andrea Hewitt and Mikayla Nielsen, who achieved triathlon world championship series podium finishes in 2011.
The annual Wanaka-Snow Farm training camp, now in its eighth year, has been held in two blocks - four weeks in January and three weeks from late February to March 21.
Training alongside New Zealand's elite triathletes are members of the French, Swiss, Canadian and Japanese teams.
Fraine said Snow Farm's cross-country trails and plateaus made it the only suitable high-altitude training venue in the country. With easy access to Wanaka's community pool, the district's calm weather and the proliferation of scenic running trails, the area was an ideal training base.
"It ticks so many boxes that they [the athletes] want to come back here."
For McIlroy (30), a strong contender for one of New Zealand's three women's Olympic triathlon spots, Wanaka was far superior to her home base of Wellington for training purposes.
"Obviously, it's got amazing scenery, good training, good roads ...You can run off-road for miles," McIlroy said.
"And the weather ... you don't have the gale-force winds here."
Hewitt (29) is the only Kiwi to have already qualified for the Olympics and, McIlroy said, our greatest medal hope.
"It's good, especially in summer ... to have a mix of altitude with normal sea-level training because it's definitely harder to breathe and it brings a bigger aerobic base. You don't have to go so hard to get the effects of your heart rate increasing," he said.
"And the running's amazing with the lake and all the trails ... there's so much variety."
