Adv 223 Yumpu

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Kohaihai,
Entrance to
Kahurangi
National Park
.
The evening before the large-as-life
Robin Judkins had met us, momentarily
as he was in full flight at the Kumara
Junction hall. Far too busy with lastminute
arrangements for the safety
briefing for what was to become one of
the world’s greatest adventure racing
events, this energiser bunny in a human
form looked at these two strangers and
without shame declared: “For a minute I
thought you were entrants, but one is too
fat and the other too young.” It did not go
un-noticed that he was staring straight at
me when he spoke of a somewhat portly
one, not too put too finer point on it.
Clearly he did not see me as a suitable
candidate for the inaugural two-day cycle
ride, mountain run, kayak and bike ride
from the wilds of the West Coast to the
gently-lapping waves of the Pacific Ocean
at Sumner Beach in Christchurch.
This visit to the West Coast was not my
first and nor was it destined to be my last.
That’s what happens when a place like
this gets under your skin, luring you back
time and again as it slowly reveals its
many layers. Beware, because it can be
highly addictive.
The Fox Glacier
The opportunities for visitation and the
range of experiences for those with
adventure in their souls have increased
dramatically since 1983. But the untamed
natural wilderness that sits at the heart of
these adventures has not.
The natural landforms on which the visitor
industry of 2020 is anchored have been
there, seemingly in-situ, for millennia. The
vast caverns and subterranean chasms
at the Oparara Basin just north east of
the enticing little hamlet of Karamea are
an example of how little ‘The Coast’ has
changed.
Similarly the limestone formations at
Punakaiki were created over millions of
years as minute sea creatures gave their
lives for what is, today, one of the region’s
most impressive natural formations, with
its huge wave surges from an ocean that
has its origin 2583 kilometres away.
The vast ice shelves that carve their way
through dense rock in their quest for the
sea, Fox and Franz Josef glaciers, are
further examples of how time has stood
still on the West Coast of Aotearoa New
Zealand.
tribespeople who crossed mountain
passes and braved raging rivers in a
quest for pounamu/greenstone, by then
already prized for tools and weapons.
Every day was an adventure for those
who made the journey from the sedate
eastern coast, through what is today
known as the Main Divide, and down the
valleys to the Tasman Sea.
In 1846 one Thomas Brunner, an
Englishman working as a surveyor for the
New Zealand Company joined two others
in a bid to scout for possible agricultural
land south-west of Nelson. During a
three-week expedition they reached the
Buller River and then Maruia, before a
scarcity of supplies drove them home.
All three of these intrepid adventurers
were later honoured by having landmarks
named after them. Charles Heaphy’s
name lives in one of the most popular
walking and mountainbiking tracks in the
region - this emerges from the Kahurangi
National Park near Karamea - while
William Fox has a glacier bearing his
name. Brunner got a coal mine and
a picturesque lake to immortalise his
exploits.
The West Coast 37 years ago, when
Judkins’ dream event began its path to
international fame and, for him, fortune
- it has now hosted 20,000 adventure
racers from every corner of the planet -
was vastly different to that which can be
experienced now, in some respects but
not in others.
Some of the greatest adventures
undertaken on the West Coast had their
genesis in the earliest days of human
exploration of that remote, wild and at
times desolate region.
The first to take up the challenges posed
by such a hostile and yet stunningly
beautiful landscape were the early
Brunner made adventure an art form with
exploits that arguably have never been
surpassed. In December 1846, just six
years after the British Crown and some
tribes signed a Treaty which promised
a partnership unparalleled anywhere in
the world, Brunner, two Maori guides and
their wives left Nelson to forge a path
from Nelson to Milford Sound.
ADVENTUREMAGAZINE.CO.NZ 45