After 87 hours of gruelling trekking over 500km of Fiordland's most challenging terrain with just a compass, a map and three hours' sleep, the winners of the Godzone adventure race are still planning their next coffee together.
Team Seagate was the outright winner of the inaugural 500km Godzone adventure race this week, coming in 15 hours ahead of its closest rival, a victory captain Nathan Fa'avae attributes to good friendship.
Fa'avae, Sophie Hart, Chris Fome and Trevor Voyce only fully assembled together in February when Voyce formed the last piece of the puzzle and the team won round one of the world adventure series in Argentina.
There is no denying they are a team of great friends who enjoy one another's company on the course and off it.
"We were always really confident that we would do well. It comes down to the good team synergy we have.
"While some just get assembled for events, we are quite close friends who meet for coffee and enjoy each other's company and have a lot of fun out on course as well."
Fa'avae says team culture is one of the most important elements to a sport that you spend, at times, more than 100 hours together in bush and with very minimal sleep.
"We know each other well and can communicate really well together and know where each other are coming from. You're not offending each other."
He says that camaraderie allows them to "pull each other up" even in tough times when the sleep hours are down and frustration levels are high.
While most of us require a hefty eight-hour sleep per day, these athletes cope with only three hours over two days and sometimes less than that.
Team Seagate waited 50 hours before sneaking in a couple hours of sleep and then waited a further 20 hours for just another 60 minutes' kip - a total of three hours in an 87-hour race.
"We're pretty knackered now, but you do cope surprisingly well.
"It does seem extreme or not possible to someone outside of the sport. When you're in the sport it's not that unusual.
"You can go 30 to 40 hours without sleep quite comfortably."
The quad-team pushed humanity to its limits physically on a course that required mountain trekking, biking, kayaking, canoeing and road biking through some of Fiordland's toughest terrain.
"We're never lost, we always know where we are on the map."
This is a certain result of having two lead navigators in Fa'avae and Fome, who usually took the lead.
Asked whether these journeys took a mental toll, he answered: "Mildly".
"Hallucination is a bit strong. The mind plays a few tricks on you, you do double-takes at things."
During one of the mountain trek stages of the course each of the four had thought they spotted a hut and in bitter disappointment when they discovered they had imagined it they each decided it was then time for a quick power nap.
Team Seagate came close to winning last year's Adventure Racing World Champs in Tasmania until it was given a four-hour disqualification for leaving behind a spot tracking device and gave away the lead to a rival French team and so ended up third.
Team Seagate will seek redemption against the current World Champion on its home ground in the French Alps this September.
"To win it for sure ... Hopefully we will go over their with a true Kiwi spirit and give them a hiding."
