ARC 2017

It was ARC weekend - Adventure Race Coromandel.  

3 teams from NPBHS and NPGHS entered the 18-hour school division.  This is Oak’s team as they start the race at midnight.  They randomly look more like they are in a music video than they are starting an 18-hour endurance race.  

We slept in MAVY while the team started with a 5 hour trek.  

This picture is Sage and Joyce reading once they woke up.  

5 hour trek, then 5+ hour bike, caving, short raft, then more biking and trekking.  It ended up being about 120K or about 75 miles.

North Island of New Zealand.

We got to drive up to the very top of the Coromandel Peninsula.  The last hour or two is on a gravel road that winds along the side of the coast.  Amazing scenery!

The team found the bugle helpful in locating us at transitions.  Also helpful for some laughs and a boost.  

Mr Hewlitt, the coach.

More mud than usual.

Although mostly overcast and sometimes wet, weather was hot and humid.

NPBHS/NPGHS took all three top awards in the high school division.  The finishing times were approximately 17 hours, 50 min.  I'm not sure that any of the other high school teams finished the course.  

Pot luck that night.  

After the debrief on Sunday morning, we went to church in a little renovated house around the corner from our backpacker.   

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Coromandel Town.
Gotta love the BBQ on the front porch.

Because they are such a small branch and don’t seem to get visitors often, they asked the visitors to bear their testimonies for sacrament meeting.  Oak and Dad passed the sacrament.  I played the keyboard.  Since they only had one tray for the water, which Oak used, Dad passed the sacrament by taking around a cup of water in one hand and a stack of plastic sacrament cups in the other.  It was a nice meeting.

Links to...

 ARC 2016

ARC 2015

Books

audiobook recommended to me by Mike - fascinating