Cyclone damage on the SH5 Napier-Taupō highway. Photo: Tony Alexander
We’ve been trying to get this event off the ground for over 3 years now. We’ve dealt with COVID lock-downs (twice), getting cold feet with low entries and then the catastrophic weather events of January this year, ironically on the weekend we’d planned to run the event.
Up until very recently we didn’t know if the course we’d planned was even there as you simply couldn’t access many areas.
As roads and access points have re-opened and landslides cleared, we’ve been able to access some areas to discover that the course as planned simply isn’t possible – whole sections of the area have collapsed and access points to rivers and trails don’t exist. Other areas are locked off to all but emergency management and locals. The magnitude of the damage is quite overwhelming. It’s hard to describe the scale of the impact to the local community. Consultation with DOC last week has confirmed that the event cannot proceed as planned.
So what does this mean?
Well thankfully there is some good news, we have a ‘Plan B’ that will work. Actually, it’s not ‘Plan B’, it’s mostly ‘Plan A’ for another year – so we’ll be racing in the future. Trippy. As the original area re-opens, we can explore it again in the coming years.
The new course is still very affected by cyclone damage, which will be obvious on the course. A lot of creativity is needed to put it all together, but just as we’ve had to adjust to the severe impact of bushfire damage in Australia, we’re confident it will be a great course.
Why Race Mountain Designs GeoQuest NZ?
Outside of the usual Adventure Racing sales pitch of ‘awesome weekend with your mates’, ‘push yourself to the ultimate limit’ and ‘it’s quite hard at the time but in retrospect, actually enjoyable’, events are an important way to reinvigorate a local community badly affected by disaster.
Hawks Bay really needs it.
From an event management perspective we’re engaging local suppliers for almost everything required to deliver the event – from t-shirt printing to tracking to venue booking, transport and map printing. From a teams perspective the accomodation bookings and food and beverage spends are a huge help to the local economy.
The local council, local adventure racing community and local tourism organisations are all really keen to GeoQuest proceed and so are we!
We’ve just wrapped up Mountain Designs GeoQuest Australia and it was nothing less than spectacular – check out the images below. The response was overwhelmingly positive with many saying it was one of the best GeoQuests ever. Off the back of this we’re very encouraged to press on with GeoQuest in Hawks Bay – it’s great event concept and the 48hr linear format will work really well in the region.
ENTER HERE > EARLY BIRD ENDS 15 JULY 2023
Who is Wild&Co and who is Chris Dixon?
We were quite late to the Adventure Racing scene – our first event was 2016 when at the last minute we took over the delivery of a legendary Aussie 24hr event called Hells Bells. It was a baptism of fire and while it didn’t all go to plan, we fell in love with the sport. Everything from exploring new trails to the logistics to the marketing and communications and best of all, the incredible sense of accomplishment on teams faces as they cross the line.
Since then we’ve delivered 24 Adventure Races including 14 x 24hr events, 5 x 48hr events and 1 x 6 day Expedition Race. We’ve recently added a series of 6hr races to the calendar and even bought a fleet of 50 NZ made Mission kayaks! While this will be our first international event, we’re confident we’ve got the team and experience to deliver an awesome event.
On the start line for Mountain Designs GeoQuest 2022 in Shoal Bay, NSW
Who is Chris Dixon? I grew up as an 800m runner – so a 220km 48hr event does seem like a long way. I’m not a top adventure racer, but depending on who I’m racing with, finishing inside the top 10 is usually the goal. I still run, love cycling and kayaking and racing in our local adventure racing events.
I grew up in a small town on the Sunshine Coast and have spent most of my life doing some sort of adventure based activity, from weeks long tramps with our kids, surfing as much of the Australian east coast as possible, to exploring the local creeks, rivers and trails on weekend adventures. I fell in love with New Zealand on my first trip there in 2000 and am always looking for an excuse to travel back. Like all our events, GeoQuest NZ is really an excuse to explore a new area, get to know likeminded people and go on adventures.
Professionally I started out as a Graphic Designer and worked my way to Managing Director of an Advertising Agency over a 15 year period before stepping into a roll as Operations Manager of a multi-national not-for-profit organisation. In the last few years I made the jump back into business and am working full time on Wild&Co.
Chris Dixon
