In the period of New Zealand Adventure Racing going back a decade or so, there were up to ten 12 to 24-hour adventure races around the country. The Arrow Series injected up to 6-events a year, there were races in Queenstown Lakes, Marlborough, Nelson and a few others scattered about in the North Island. Today, only a couple of these events still remain. These events played a pivotable role in the development of the sport providing a training ground for teams entering the sport plus a testing ground for established teams.
It’s pleasing to see that there are now a few of these events still running with healthy numbers and the emergence of some new events. Our race team Seagate (myself, Sophie Hart, Trevor Voyce, Chris Forne and our spare part guy Dougal Allan) are in build up for the AR World Champs in Costa Rica in December and having events to use as part of our build up are hugely valuable.
When we heard about the Mystery Lake race we were the first to enter. It sounded like a really fun event and the location was begging for exploration. Trevor was unable to attend due to family commitments so we enlisted the services of Dougal, again.
The event was held in the upper reaches of the Rangitata Valley, inland from Mount Somers. Mt Potts lodge was the base for the event, providing accommodation, restaurant and bar. The valley was used as a stage for 2000 Southern Traverse, was the first filming location for the Lord of the Rings blockbuster and also home to New Zealand’s most remote skifield called Erehwon, which ironically is ‘nowhere’ spelt backwards.
Expansive, clean and stunning would be three words to describe the area, which contains the Hakatere Conservation Area.
For our team we had our own race getting to the event. Sophie departed Nelson flying to Christchurch to meet Chris where they would drive the 145km to Mount Potts Lodge.
I left Queenstown and met Dougal in Wanaka, heading north with a longer drive but a head start. All was going well ... [cutting a long story short] ... until we had to source another vehicle in the Twizel / Tekapo region. With a few hours of delay, hitchhiking, tow truck, we were on the road. Despite Sophie waiting at CHCH airport for a period and unable to contact Chris, they did eventually link up and beat us to the event, all of us missing gear check and race briefing. By midnight we had packed our gear and got ready for the race, due to start at 6:30am.
Despite an atrocious weather forecast we awoke to a starry sky confirming we had at least half a day of good weather. Essentially a rogaine format, the task for the day was to score as many points as possible in twelve hours, hiking, mountain biking and kayaking.
Just before the gun start the participants giggled and jogged on the spot fending off the cold air that had sunk down from the surrounding snow capped mountains. It was compulsory to do the hike section first so everyone headed off in one pack for a few minutes, to our relief 95% of the teams decided to do the loop clockwise, Chris opted for anti-clockwise. I guess some teams like the company of others, some don’t, our team prefers to get away on our own and maximise the wilderness experience.

Chris got to work and sniffed out the controls like a bio security detector dog sniffs out apples and Chinese mushrooms. The first few hours we ran through tussocks hills finding controls and pushing through matagouri bushes. The views were amazing which had everyone inspired and motivated. The biggest challenge of the morning was half a dozen crossings of the Potts River, in the shadow of the mountains, the icy waters stung our legs as we waded through. Finally we reached the final control up the valley and could scramble up a rocky spur and back into the welcome sunshine. About this point we met the  other 80-people doing the race, traveling in a long line clockwise around the course.


Some of the control placements were probably a bit marginal given we were not looking for the typical orange and white orienteering kites, but instead we had to search for small white tags with a code on them, it meant we could get to the right place but then have to spend additional time searching for the tag. Some teams couldn’t find them.
We came off the hike buzzing and quickly pedaled off on the bike stage. We opted to head directly to the lake and do the kayak stage. Lake Clearwater lived up to its name as we cruised around the stage in under an hour back to our bikes.


Next up was the meaty part of the bike stage. We hadn’t seen any other teams at this point so started to assume we had a comfortable lead. The bike route took us past the Spider Lakes, then 3km of bike carrying on a shortcut to Paddle Hill Creek, we climbed the rough trail through the alpine and over into the South Branch Ashburton River, to Boundary Creek Hut. By now we were ten hours into the race and had hardly seen a team, but as we headed back to Lake Clearwater we started to mingle with lots of teams.
The final hour for us was fairly furious as we raced to score all the controls remaining, in the end we got back with five minutes spare. We got all but one control, which we spent nearly an hour looking for only to find out after the race it was not where it was marked on the map. That was pleasing as we were sure we were looking in the right place.


Arriving back at Mt Potts Lodge we showered and retired to the bar and cafe. Amazingly, we had escaped the bad weather, we’d had a few minutes of hail and the wind certainly got cranking but the day remained warm with mainly clear skis, sunburn on many arms and legs. Reports of some good waves on Lake Clearwater were enjoyed by many of the teams. We had glorious vistas of the Southern Alps and Two Thumb range all day.
For our team we’d had a solid 12-hours on the go, keeping the pace honest most of the time, a few forced breaks for two-punctures was the only time we let up. We’d enjoyed the race immensely and it served as a good reminder that the little races around the country have a huge amount to offer.
Report By Nathan Fa'avae