RIDING THE LENGTH OF SOUTH ISLAND NZ IN 9 DAYS!

When I came across an article a few months ago about this thing called EPIC camp, it caught my eye and sparked a big interest. It is a triathlon camp where we get to ride the whole length of the South Island from Nelson to Bluff in 9 days, as well as some running and swimming thrown in between. Wow. What an opportunity! It has always been in my bucket list to ride the length of New Zealand!! So here is the chance to ride from the top of South Island down to the bottom, exploring our country, and doing something that I love (swim, bike, run). Exciting! Since all of the overseas triathlon events had been cancelled for me this year, this seemed to be the perfect fit.

The thought of doing this camp was pretty daunting. The requirement for this camp is pretty strict. We will need to be FIT for this camp. Not super fast, but we must be able to do an ironman ride (180km) in under 6.5hrs otherwise we will likely struggle to complete this camp. We are encouraged to go to our limits with points competition that rewards going longer or harder. Each day on camp includes some form of in-camp handicapped racing, along with other unique challenges. There are only 30 spots. Having done 4 full Ironman triathlons in the past, my bike split has been well under the 6.5hrs mark, so I signed up with butterfly in my stomach. Stoked when I was told I made the cut ☺️

So here it begins!!

Friday 23rd October.

We all met each other for the first time and assembled in Nelson for team briefing. Most are Wellington and Christchurch based athletes and the odd places like New Plymouth and Fielding. There are 3 of us from Auckland including myself. We also met our support crews who would be travelling daily with us in their vans with our luggage. The event organiser/coach explained the logistics in details. Everyone who came obviously had different goals, however there were minimum daily requirements needed to be done to complete the camp. My goal was to enjoy the camp, participate in all of the events, complete the camp and making sure I get to Bluff safely at the end! Felt anxious and nervous but at the same time really looking forward to starting this epic journey!

Day 1 - Saturday 24th October.

Mini Aquathon 1.2 km ocean swim and 5km run.

Bike from Nelson to Murchison 140km with 16km Time Trial.

5am wake up call. Oh geez!! Starting with my first ocean swim for the season at Tahunanui beach in the cold Nelson water!! Put my wetsuit on and surprisingly it wasn’t as icy as I thought 😂 The run was then along the waterfront. The session was meant to be done with hard intensity as it’s only short. For those who knows me well, I am not a morning person at all! It takes my body ages to be fully awake, engaged and ready to go. Let’s just say I was well awake after that! We then started our first bike ride of the camp, straight into one of the hilliest route with lots of undulations. Amongst the mix was also a 16km of time trial to do. The weather was just stunning and we rode in sunshine. Not everyone rode together and we broke up into different groups. I guess we were all trying to suss out each other and stick with those who had similar abilities. We made it to Murchison in the afternoon and I was pretty jaded at the end. Lots of sunburnt for many people too but luckily not me 🤣 We went out for dinner at the local pub and my fish burger tasted amazing! Happy to complete day one and it was a good start.

Day 2 - Sunday 25th October.

Bike from Murchison to Westport (Carter’s Beach) 100km.

Easy long run 11.5km with some of it at the Cape Foulwind track.

First day is always going to be a shock. Well the body didn’t know what’s coming in the next 8 days!! I woke up and could felt yesterday’s session already. Surprisingly though I felt good on the bike and in the last 50km managed to jump into a faster group. Really enjoyed the ride but the weather has started to pack up and we had rain in the last 20km. Made it to Carter’s beach and after a quick shower and lunch, we set out for our run starting at the Cape Foulwind track before making our way back to the holiday park. My roommates that night was two cool ladies from Wellington who were really funny and very entertaining. We had a lot of laughs that night!

Day 3 - Monday 26th October.

Run 8km with 500ms repeats.

Pool swim 800m with 50ms repeats.

Bike from Westport to Greymouth 112km.

5am wake up call again. We jogged down to meet at nearby location to do our 500m elimination race. It’s a handicapped start so we all had to go in our given time. If the faster people managed to lap you then you are out. I managed to run 8 x 500ms before being lapped and came third women overall which was surprising! Then we head to the local pool in Westport for a quick swim and once again it was the same format of elimination race with 50ms intervals and handicapped start. I didn’t do too well on this one! Managed to only get 4 rounds before I was out of the race. Ah well.. I swam easy afterwards to make up the total of 800m we had to do. After breakfast we started our ride. The rain had become heavy and we all put our wet weather gear on. I wore a rain jacket that I had brought with me but I had never worn. I bought it 20 years ago in a sale and never bothered opening the pack. I knew it was a little bit too big, but didn’t realise how big it was until it blew up like a parachute riding in the wind. I had created more resistance!! Served me right for never trying the jacket on first. At the aid station I stripped it off. Then I also realised that my front brakes were touching the tyres the entire time. Aaaagh!! Dumb!! No wonder it had been a hard slog!! Double the resistance again!! 🤦🏻‍♀️ Quickly fixed it and off I went feeling a bit happier. Not once the rain stopped and it stayed with us until we got to Greymouth. Absolutely soaked to the bone. Special moment in the ride came when I got a bit emotional thinking of my dear friend who passed away exactly one year ago this day. I wanted to dedicate this ride to him so I did an extra 8km 🧡 He surely must be laughing at me for doing that in the heavy rain! Happy to jump into the hot shower afterwards!

Day 4 - Tuesday 27th October.

Bike from Greymouth to Franz Josef 170km.

Our longest bike ride yet!! It was all about getting down to business and getting to Franz Josef. Weather was a lot better and we only had few showers but nothing like a downpour we had yesterday. I could also feel the shift in the temperature as we go down further south of the island. I put more winter layers on during the ride. Got it done and arrived in Franz Josef safely. My legs definitely felt heavier each day and after today they were truly gone! However confidence level was getting higher!! Proud of what I have achieved!

Day 5 - Wednesday 28th October.

Run 10km at Glacier trail and back to accommodation.

Bike from Franz Josef to Haast 143km.

Man. What a day. This one was tough! 5am wake up call again. Woke up with legs that was saying that it has had enough. I said to myself the run will flush out my legs and hopefully it would feel easier. It didn’t 😩😭 But another scenic trail run! So much beauty in the West Coast. Then on to the ride. Today we started with 25km of climbing. As much as I love hill climbing (yep more than the flats!) my legs hated me today. Obviously the run this morning did nothing to flush out my legs. The last 25km of the ride also finished with more climbing. I was getting cold by the time I got to Haast. Unfortunately I also rode on my own so I didn’t know where the hotel was. Circled and circled around Haast and finally found it. I ended up doing 155km in total!! 🤦🏻‍♀️ That night I went to the pub hotel with the others and had a much needed cider!! Felt a bit overwhelmed.... Stark contrast to yesterday where confidence was high. I went to bed hoping my legs would work tomorrow!

Day 6 - Thursday 29th October.

Bike from Haast to Wanaka 145km with 12km Hill Time Trial - King Of The Mountain challenge.

Run up Mt Iron Wanaka.

For some of the serious athletes in this camp, it has become a competition who could stay at the top of the leader board. They were still going crazy with doing extra kms to get their extra points. The aim is to retain their yellow (male) and pink female) jerseys as the tour leaders. I was happy not to race anybody. From the outset, I knew that my biggest challenge and competition was myself! And for most people, the concensus today was their bums were getting sore and they were a bit over it 😂 But knowing we would be in Wanaka soon made it better! None the less there was a King Of The Mountain challenge in today’s ride where we had to climb up 12km of steep hills as fast as we can. Let’s just say that my legs somehow miraculously still worked!! 🙏 Got to the top and thought I had managed ok. Finished middle of the pack. The rest of the ride was very scenic again. I kept thinking that I was so lucky to be able to explore the South Island like this - doing what I love to do! Got to Wanaka in the afternoon and after a quick bite to eat we all jogged 1.5km down from the motel to bottom of Mount Iron. Again, it was a race to the top for a place. Not that I care anymore about winnings or placings. I am just hoping I could still run. Well the legs protested and it became more and more like a shuffle/trot 🐢 But once again made it to the top and so proud to get there 🙌 Then it was our downtime before dinner. I walked down to Lake Wanaka on my own. For about 10 seconds I was tempted to swim (Yes I did brought my wetsuit to the lake 😂) but decided to dip my legs instead for 10 minutes. Ice bath treatment was magic! Also managed to squeeze in a quick massage for the poor legs 👏👏

I survived day 6!

Day 7 - Friday 30th October.

Pool swim - 1km time trial.

Bike from Wanaka to Arrowtown 55km.

Woke up. I couldn’t believe it had been one week. Ouch. My legs were still heavy as - even after the ice bath and massage last night. Jogged 2km to the pool. We had 1km time trial today in the pool. I felt like I was sinking. Swam like a log. Jogged 2km back to the motel and prepared for the short ride today. So glad it was going to be a short one!! But it is still a climb through the crown range to get to Wanaka with elevation over 1000 metres. Before we started the ride, they told us we were stopping by at the Puzzle World. We had to play a game of navigating in a maze with a partner. I remembered at this point I started to feel a bit unwell. It wasn't the maze either. Maybe the last few days had all just catching up to me now. After we finished the game I quickly had some food but didn’t feel much better. The sun was shining again and everyone stripped off into thin layers and put their sun block on. Knowing my instinct that I get cold easily, I decided to keep all my warmers on - despite everyone’s horror 🤣 They always wondered why I have so many layers of clothes on 🤷🏻‍♀️ We eventually set out on our ride. Passed the famous Cardrona Hotel. No time to stop for a drink 😭 I was worried I was going to feel ill again in the rest of the ride but it didn’t feel too bad. Finally I reached the summit of crown range. Damn it was cold!! Thank goodness for all my extra layers. Sat hard on my brakes down the steep descent down to Arrowtown. Because of the shorter ride, I had some opportunity to have a chunk of much needed rest in the afternoon before we treated ourselves with a nice dinner and ice cream in Arrowtown!! 🍦

Day 8 - 31st October.

Run 10km in Queenstown - Arrowtown trail.

Bike from Arrowtown to Gore 180km.

Pool swim in Gore.

The last 5am wake up call! Time for another trail run exploration. This time it was the famous Queenstown trail which cut through parts of Arrowtown. My legs were feeling much fresher this morning! Yay. The shorter day yesterday on the bike must had really helped 😊 It had started raining heavily again when we set off on the bike. This was our longest ride in the camp. Weather was supposed to pack up again big time and the temperature was supposed to plummet. As the ride went on, it got really wet and really cold. I started to feel hypothermic. Couldn’t feel my hands at all to change gears or touch the brakes on the handlebars. I knew I had to hang on to the next aid station and hopefully could get into my luggage to retrieve some dry clothes. At 115km I got to the aid station in Lumsden. I felt sick, cold and nauseated. My mind couldn’t think straight. I went into the van to get changed. Then the awesome support crew brought us hot chips from the local take away shops!! We were so blown away 🍟 I think that’s what got us through the rest of the ride!! I felt a bit better and jumped back on the bike to continue. 1km down the road I had to turn back because I realised I left my helmet at the aid station!! Seriously.. felt so stupid 🤦🏻‍♀️😳...I blamed the hypothermia!! The rain didn’t stop until the last 20km of the ride. We made it to Gore! Legs and body were like jelly. 180km done. Had a hot shower and a hot soup before quickly got changed into our togs for our last swim of the camp! At this point no one really wanted to swim. However the coach got other ideas. Before we jumped into the pool we had to do a wall sit competition to see who could hold it the longest. I was like... “Are you f**** kidding me?!” After 180km bike ride????!!! Anyway, off I went to find a wall to sit against. Within few minutes, everyone started to drop off like flies. There were still a few left in the challenge including me. I tried to block the pain. However I was quietly confident. Maybe. Well, I got a secret these other athletes didn’t know. Years and years ago I actually won a wall sit competition for the Les Mills inter club challenge. I held my wall sit for 19mins. But!! Today was different. Everything in my body was in pain and I didn’t even know if I could hold it any longer more than 5 minutes. Then there were two of us left. I was up against the current female tour leader. She was an incredible athlete. So much respect!! Why was I trying to compete against her? My goal in this camp was not to compete with others.
I could have easily given up.
But then I remembered my ‘real why’...........

My WHY in this camp was to push my limits and compete against myself. Just me. Nobody else. To push myself to the limit meant trying my best and my hardest not to give up on myself. Plus I am pretty sure my journey as a Group Fitness Instructor in the last 18 years would have helped to shape me for this wall squat challenge right?? 🤣 Seconds and minutes ticked by and it seemed like forever. Then I heard a voice. They said I had won! I was the last female sitting! Wow.. I had actually won something. LOL!! So funny🥇 Proud that I could still walk afterwards and threw myself in the pool to do the medley and kicking challenge. That went pretty dismal and awful 😂 Normally I couldn’t do butterfly anyway which was the requirement of the medley unless I have got the fins on. And there were no fins in sight. Ah well. Likewise with the kicking challenge. I guess it’s lucky that in the sports of triathlon I only need to worry about freestyle swimming. After the pool, we all head straight to dinner. I was so tired. I tried not to fall asleep on my food. I slept well that night...

Day 8 got me real gooooooooood!!!!!! It had pushed me physically to exhaustion. And tomorrow is our final day. So close to the finish!!!

Day 9!!! FINAL DAY!! 1st November.

Ride from Gore to Bluff 112km.

Run off the bike 5.5km through Bluff trail.

This is it! We were all so excited this morning. Our bums had survived this long. And our body had held up. And we were nearly there. Just one more ride and one more run to go. We all started together and biked as a group. We left the motel and looked forward to cruise into Bluff. “Cruise” was the word in the first 50km. But then it was all over. Our happiness was cut short. Crosswinds and gusts came after that. It was so so strong - it was so horrific. My bike was thrown side to side and made it really dangerous to ride. It was relentless. I freaked out. Rode slow like a nana thinking that would help. I think we all went into our dark places for the next 60km into the howling wind, rattled from all the destructions. This was not what we had in our mind!! We were supposed to ride and finish happily to Bluff!! My average speed dropped by half from 26km/hr down to 13km/hr.. Aaaagh!!! Anger, fear and frustration all into one. I became a ‘Lone Ranger’ again and slogged it out by myself for the next 2 hours. Mentally this was the hardest point of the camp. Not only because I was physically tired and spent, but Mother Nature had decided to give us another big test for our last day. And there was no easy way. Just like the motto of this EPIC camp! Crawled and crawled I finally saw the Bluff sign. Relief came all over me. I saw those who had already arrived were sitting in the pub. They already started drinking! I think we were all quite traumatised and needed a drink. Few of the crazy and brave ones still tackled the optional Bluff hill for some extra points. I was just happy to sit there with my ginger beer. Trying to absorb it all in. I DID it. When everyone in the team had finally arrived, we all came together again. The 30 athletes rode as a team for the last 2km to the end of the road to the Bluff pole. We celebrated, took photos and drank the bubbles 🥂 But hang on. Not finished yet. There was still a run to do off the bike! Put our running shoes on and we ran some of the Bluff trail. At this point I didn’t care how my body felt anymore. Lots of emotions came through me in that last run. I think I might have had a wee quiet cry.
Yep I DID IT.

I ticked off my bucket list!! 🙌⭐️✔️

Thank you all for following my journey. Thank you all for your kind messages, support and encouragement in the past 9 days. They had made such a difference in some of my toughest times. Now time to go back home to be with the wifey and the fur babies again. This has been truly EPIC!! ❤️

Until the next bucket list.....

BIKE total 1178.3 km.

(Total Elevation 12790 m)

RUN total 61 km.

SWIM total 3.5 km.