Active Tonic Ltd, a subsidiary of 100% Pure Racing — organisers of the GODZone adventure race — bought the five-stage event from founder Geoff Hunt, who had run it since 1994, in 2019.
However, the past two attempts to run it were scuppered by Covid.
Near-perfect conditions greeted the almost 500 competitors in Queenstown on Saturday, many of whom had trained for the past two years intending to take part in the event.
Starting at The Remarkables ski area, teams and individuals first navigated a 2km set course on skis or snowboards through Curvey Basin, finishing at the base building, before a 17km mountain bike leg from The Remarkables to Frankton Beach.
From there, kayakers faced a 7km paddle — contending with some headwinds — to Queenstown Bay, after which there was a 9km run from central Queenstown to Arthurs Point.
The final stage was a challenging 9km uphill bike ride from Arthurs Point to Coronet Peak’s base building.
The first home in the open male category was Rainer Pye in a time of 2hr 24min 3sec, followed by Jake Jackson-Grammer (2:27:11) and Samuel Newlands (2:31:41).
Rebecca Kingsford won the open female category (2:40:41), with Katherine Reardon in second place (2:47:30) and Emily Wilson in third (2:49:18).
In the teams event, Eat a Pie, Become a Better Person won the open male section in 2:11:08, Alpine Health and Fitness won the open female category in 2:30:39 and Tahuna A won the mixed business teams (2:08:25).
Warwick Tuffnell and Nigel Robertson won the male tandem team (2:51:59), and Zara and Siena Mackley won the female tandem team (3:19:13).
The ironically named Never Come First duo of Hazel Bowering-Scott and Matt Cowen did actually end up coming first in the mixed tandem team in 3:16:04.
