Godzone Adventure Race

Godzone is a full length adventure race held annually in the rugged and spectacular terrain of the South Island of New Zealand. Organisers make full use of the region’s famous mountains, rivers, ridgelines and trails to create magnificent courses involving kayaking, hiking, mountain-biking, river canoeing, glacier-walking, swimming and other sports. The South Island is geographically spectacular and to many the unofficial home of adventure racing. 2020 will see the race’s first iteration outside the South Island, when GODZone ‘Chapter 9’ moves to Rotorua in the North Island.

The event is raced in teams of four and divided into two categories. Godzone ‘Pure’ is unsupported in the traditional sense of adventure racing, so teams hand the logistics over the race organisers, seeing their equipment boxes at the various Transition Areas, but otherwise looking after themselves throughout. The second category is ‘Pursuit’, in which teams have a support crew that can provide them – only in transition areas – with food, organisational support and other assistance. The Pursuit course is shorter than the Pure course and navigationally less challenging, but teams will often race harder because of this. Unlike many races, same sex teams are permitted to enter both categories, but only mixed-sex teams will be ranked and may win trophies and prizes. These are divided into Overall, Colt and Legend.

Read the story of GODZone 2019 in words and pictures.

For more information, see their website at Godzoneadventure.com.