 
Te Aroha News
1 November 2009
Te Aroha trio spring into challenge
It was minus five and snowing when three Te Aroha women arrived to brave the terrain and weather in an all-women's adventure race in Nelson.
Suzy Monds, Erica Rigter and Sherryll Gordon completed Spring Challenge 2009 in eight hours and 15 minutes, orienteering against 200 other teams.
All members of the team had to finish the course together and were not allowed to be separated by more than 50m from each other throughout.
The order of the race was whitewater rafting, mountain biking, hiking and navigation.
They were also required to bring their own outdoor tools, sleeping bag, survival blanket, torch and support crew.
The course was kept secret until the night before and teams were given a pre-marked map with check points on it.
Each point had to be visited in numerical order using only the map and a compass to navigate.
Realising how frigid and unfavourable the weather was, the women were just about to change their mind when they got there. "We had a 21-knot head wind at minus five degrees, it was freezing," Mrs Monds said.
The gun went off at 6am and they raced for the rafts and started paddling. "We couldn't feel our hands or feet but were making good progress."
The trio, supported by Ironique Cafe, Body Maintenance Massage Therapy, Healthfit Gym, Westpac and Outdoor Adventure Shop, rowed along Buller River, weaving through rapids where water was low and rocks were a major hassle. "We had to get out many times into the freezing water to manoeuvre our raft off," said Mrs Monds.
Having trained on Te Aroha and Rotorua mountain bike tracks, Nelson's terrain was much tougher to bike. They battled on, mostly walking their bikes over steep tracts with a sheer drop on one side.
On to the next stage, they hiked to a 1022m mountain top where the going was steep and tough.
Most ground was unbroken and there were no tracks, said Mrs Monds. "The views were out of this world. We were surrounded by snow-capped mountains the whole time."
The trio then tramped through a forest and navigated with a compass. They continued to hike around a peninsula and were finally on the last leg.
"There was the finish line on the lakeside where we had started earlier in the morning," said Mrs Monds.
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