More than 2600 people took part on Saturday in the country’s biggest off-road sporting event, running or biking in five events in the hills between Arrowtown and Wanaka’s Glendhu Bay.
The Motatapu and NZ Open — the latter running over four days until Sunday — have been on the same weekend the past two years.
Peskett says the clash hasn’t proved to be a negative for the Motatapu, whether through event logistics, attracting volunteers, or availability of accommodation.
"It would be better if two major events weren’t on the same weekend in the same region, but they are quite different events, and it’s managed to work.
"We haven’t noticed anything adverse."
Next year’s Motatapu event will be held on Saturday, March 7, which she understands won’t clash with either the NZ Open, running from February 26 to March 1, or the Wanaka A&P Show.
And subject to the golf tourney’s dates being pushed around by the international golf schedule, she understands that’ll also be the case in 2027.
She and her team are "really happy" with how Saturday went, she says.
"We were very lucky in terms of the weather ... there was a nice cloud covering that kept those temperatures a bit cooler, which helps the athletes out on the course.
"From an ops point of view, behind the scenes, we’ve got a pretty solid team that comes back every year, which we’re really grateful for, and everything went really well."
Included in the winners were Arrowtown local Benje Patterson, whose house is about 1km from the finish line.
Patterson says he had a "quiet goal" to podium in the 42km Motatapu Marathon — he ended up on the top of it, finishing in 3hrs 4mins 11secs.
Queenstowner Hannah Wall smashed the women’s 52km ultra run in 6.57:52, and fellow local Hayley Holmes took the women’s 15km Miner’s Trail title, in 1.39:04.
