Nathan Fa'ave, Chris Forne, Sophie Hart, and Stu Lynch of team Avaya clocked up their fifth win of the world's largest expedition adventure race this morning when they pedalled across the GODZone finish line. 

The race around the back country of Rotorua was expected to take between eight and nine days to complete. The multiple GODZone champions finished in five.

Southland’s multisport team, Murihiku Mates, was still on course today, trekking stage seven (Kaiweka Kaimanawa) and reportedly having “no issues”, according to the tracking website.

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Murihiku Mates (Chris Stewart, Dave Cowie, Brent Kingsland, Michele Frey) are in 16th position and still on the full course, which was one of the main goals for the team. The other is finishing. 

Some of the starting teams have already withdrawn from the race or have been diverted to a shorter course.

A hot contender for second place is team isport, featuring 2021 Coast to Coast champions Dougal Allan and Simone Maier, of Wanaka, with former All Black rugby player turned adventure racer Richie McCaw, and Theo Wordsworth, of Canterbury.

They were battling with Tiki Tour, a Queenstown based quartet, comprising brothers Tom and George Lucas, Mike Kelly and Kym Skerman. This team has previously won the GODZone and has a strong adventure racing pedigree.

From left, team isport: Simone Maier, Dougal Allan, Richie McCaw and Theo Wordsworth: PHOTO: Supplied

Race director Adam Fairmaid said today that both teams competing for runner-up have been neck and neck throughout the adventure race.

McCaw's team was first off the 53km Lake Taupo kayak stage this morning.  

"This will come down to who has the most horsepower and desire to take the second spot," Fairmaid said.  

“Both have raced well and given it everything. There are quite a few checkpoints on the Lake Ohakuri stage between Taupo and the finish line, which could be tricky when travelling in a pack raft. Any mistakes there would be costly at this stage of the game."

Team Tiki Tour, navigating. PHOTO: Supplied

Avaya arrived at Waipa Hub in the Redwoods forest south of Rotorua at 7.55 am, after five days of adventure racing across 666km of some of New Zealand’s most diverse wilderness terrain. 

The intensity of what the team had achieved was not lost on Avaya captain Nathan Fa’avae. 

"The start of the race was a bit interesting because of Covid level 2 teams were set off in intervals, and we were in the last wave. We just did our own thing on that first bike stage and were quite surprised to reach the front of the field pretty quickly.”  

“I guess that was a promising sign early on that we were not even trying to catch up. From there on, we were consistently moving pretty quickly through most of the disciplines, which got us into an excellent position to really try and break from the front pack as early as possible." 

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The world-class team has an impeccable track record at GODZone, winning every chapter they have raced in together. This includes Chapter 1 -Milford Sound, Chapter 2 - Mt Cook, Chapter 3 - Kaikoura, Chapter 4 - Wanaka, and Chapter 9 - Rotorua. 

Chris Forne has won an additional three GODZones racing as the captain of other teams, including Chapter 5 Tasman, Chapter 7 Fiordland, and Chapter 8 in Canterbury. 

Fairmaid said it was an incredible feat and a well-deserved win. 

"Avaya is world-class in every sense and the true champions of the adventure racing world. They don't give anything away to the other teams and consistently race their own race. Over the years, they have set a very high standard of racing that no other team has come close to matching. It's a privilege to watch this team come back together and win GODZone again, especially at the very first North Island GODZone.” 

Southland adverturers, Murihiku Mates, team 54. PHOTO: GODZone website

GODZone teams are carrying GPS tracking systems and can be following online HERE: