Kawerau is cold, cold, cold! The race start is a half hour walk from transition base, we shed our warm layers with some reluctance and grin and bear the -1 degrees. As we approach the start line we are given an egg - keep it safe till the end for 100 bonus points; I tuck Egg-bert into the front pouch of my UD vest, making a little nest of my merino hat, and wedging in a couple of muesli bars to make little walls. Sleep well little guy, I don't like your chances.......
The start line is chaos - they always are! We push hard (well I do, Rochelle can run about 2 mins a km faster than me, I'm practically sprinting!) as we want to be near the front and not caught up in the congestion. The first mystery activity is an open forest space with multiple bird pictures nailed to trees; find 5 forest birds and move on for maximum points. Great plan #1 - it's a long skinny area marked on the map, alongside the road which we are going to continue down. Rather than splitting up and meeting back at the entry point, Chelle and I take one side each, run the whole length of the area while remaining in calling distance, and meet up at the end. We've seen a Kiwi, Fantail, Kokako, Pukeko, and a bird which I thought was a Kaka, but the guy running nearby called a Kea....... as we run off we catch a glimpse of a Kereru, so quickly swap that one in. Fairly rapt to be in the first bunch heading out from the area, which gives us a clear run through the falls and into the climb without getting stuck behind anyone.
I've told Rochelle beforehand, that one of my goals is that when it's too technical, or I'm too tired to run; I want to maintain forward momentum, to not switch to an amble. As a result, she's often saying "Fast walking" or "Run this bit". This strategy totally worked as we came off the trek well ahead of teams who would have had potential to move faster than us. I was possibly also a little more knackered than I would otherwise have been!! It's definitely a strategy to put a teammate in charge of.
The Tarawera Falls are so impressive, and it's lovely to run along the turquoise river which Rochelle had never seen before and was very admiring of. The trek leg in general was awesome, great variety of climbing, bush, a shingly wash, regular CPs to keep us busy - one of my favourite treks I think. The path is totally marked with pink tape, as the RD was concerned about someone falling off the huge bluffs to our East, but this is balanced with some of the CPs being out of sight, on the backs of trees, and quite hard to find. You really had to be on the map and know when to look, and we did really well through this section, although the Dead Tree which hardly looked dead, I just happened to fluke looking back at the right time.
We came off the trek leg well ahead of our envisaged time..... so as a result, decided to head out on the extra loop rather than be faster than expected on the bike as well and run out of points to collect. Turns out we should have stuck to our plan, as that's what the ladies who won did!!! Friends from Orienteering Bay of Plenty took out the win, by a considerable margin, but both are very strong cyclists.
Running the long loop was fairly torturous for me - pushing beyond my current run legs as it was open road and speed was vital. I seem to be comparatively faster trekking! I also got a bit behind in my nutrition, and heading out on the bikes was decidedly legless and thought I might be done! Rochelle has joined a MTB group, and a windtrainer competition against Mr Bib Shorts Man; her legs were in way better shape than mine initially. Luckily I got a second wind, and was able to finish a little stronger, managing to get just far enough ahead of Rochelle to return her earlier reminders to speed up with a "Fast pedalling" jibe! (I'm pretty sure she just let me get in front for my prides sake!)
We had a great time on the small rogaines, getting all CPs although with a bit of mucking around on one CP which cost us a bit of time. The second rogaine was compass bearings and distances, which I quickly ran through while Rochelle cleaned her shoes. (Yes, she cleaned her shoes!). This was a highlight as I'd take my bearing and say "300 degrees, 45 metres - somewhere there by the leaning tree" and I'd run to the leaning tree and it was right there!!! Managed to repeat this for all so was rapt to pick up these 500 points really fast, as we were running late and getting penalty points in a gamble to be earning more than we were losing.
At the Mystery Activity centre, hatchet throwing Rochelle's gentle nature was possibly a disadvantage as it kept bouncing out, maybe my East coast upbringing helped me there - but I pretty much watched and chatted to the race organisers while she finished our wordfind! Egg-bert was gingerly withdrawn intact from his nest for our bonus 100 points; and we finished with puddles still frozen around our feet!
I hoped for a top 5, felt disappointed to not be called for 5, 4, 3; and then fairly rapt to be called for 2nd. As it turned out, there were only 50 points between us and 3rd - 5th. If we had been 3 minutes slower we would have been pushed out. I wonder what 50 points other teams are lamenting in hindsight!
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