The iconic Te Anau event, The Kepler Challenge Mountain Run usually run on the first weekend of December, has been postponed this year to 15th January 2022, due to the current Covid-19 situation.

Race Director, Steve Norris said that the change of date was communicated to the runners on Tuesday night (26/10/21), after Labour Weekend.

“Under the current Covid-19 guidelines, the event would have to be limited to 100 participants. We couldn’t hold the briefing or the prizegiving. Our choices were to cancel or to postpone the event. The race brings a couple of thousand of people to Te Anau, which is good for the town and its businesses, so we didn’t want to cancel,” Mr Norris said.

The Race Secretary, Rachel White said that to date 260 people had withdrawn from the Challenge and the Grunt since the change of date announcement was made on the 26 Oct.

Of the 450 registered for the Challenge, 200 have withdrawn, and of the 200 signed up for the Grunt, 60 have pulled out.

“We have 300 on the waiting list, and I am contacting those people trying to fill those spots back up, but we have not made up for the number withdrawn yet,” she said.

The event has hit a few stumbling blocks in the last two years. It had to change its course due to bad weather and flooding on part of the track.

This is the third time in a row members of The Kepler Challenge Mountain Run Trust and Organising Committee have to face serious dilemmas of whether to go ahead with the event and in what format.

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Their message to the runners is “We trust you understand this is a difficult situation in this climate for all event organisers and we remain committed to running another successful Kepler Challenge on 15th January 2022. The Te Anau community looks forward to welcoming you. Thanks for your understanding.”

The decision has come on the back of the postponement or cancellation of many major Southland events including the Burt Munro Challenge, Southern Field Days, which would both have been held in February 2022, and A Midsummer Night's Dream performance by the Royal NZ Ballet at Civic Theatre Invercargill scheduled for 24 November.

However, Te Anau's Tartan Festival and the Bluff Oyster Festival are still planned to go ahead in April and May 2022 respectively.