Mt Tappy makes you Happy
Tapuae-o-Uenuku, or Mt. Tappy as it is nicknamed, rises to a height of 2,885 meters (9,465 feet). Located in the Inland Kaikoura mountain range on New Zealand’s South Island, Tapuae-o-Uenuku is the highest point in the country north of the Aoraki Mount Cook region. The mountain’s name translates to “footprint of the rainbow” in Māori but is also believed to be named after Chief Tapuaenuku. Sir Edmund Hillary actually climbed Tappy back when he was training in the New Zealand Air Force in 1944. He eventually went on to become the first person to summit Mt. Everest
I'm quite lucky to be surrounded by like minded crazy people who think a 24hr non-stop adventure like 100km Bike, 23km "run" up a 2885m peak and reverse way back sounds like a fun activity to do. Thanks the my Polish friend Maciej for coming with this idea and the legendary Tim Sutton for giving us intel and help with planning and creating a new type of challenge in itself (or was it Kyle's idea?).
This new format of a challenge is - select a starting point and a mountain and attempt to perform the route out and back with a combination of bike/run. The first one I've seen in Wellington train station - Mt Matthews, now Picton - Mt Tappy. I have some ideas as well on my mind: (light) Wellington - Mt Kaukau or (6 peaks) Wellington - Mt Crawford, Mt Albert, Mt Vic, Polhill, Makara, Kaukau.
Preparation.
Different approach to preparation - Maciej experience in mountaineering has taught him very good strategy for going light on his missions! Whereas me coming for more adventurous long day packing allowed for more comfort style packing. IT was good to see this from different perspectives! Bike choice was also a consideration - light road bike with wide 32mm tyres for Maciej and my heavy alloy CX bike with 38mm gravel tyres. I was more comfortable on the gravel while Maciej was smashing it in front on the paved road.
We choose to it on Friday to allow for a better weather window and always good to have more days to recover before Monday. Funnily enough both Maciej and I took the wellbeing days off at work - weird way for some to spend this day smashing yourself!
Mentally we broke the route down in 4 sections (Bike in, Run up, run down, bike back) and roughly allowed 6 hours for each of them.
After some contemplation we started at 20:50.
Leg 1
We split the stage into 3 stages, first 30km on road Picton-Blenheim, then the first gravel section at Taylors pass with followed 15km of road and then mostly gravel part to the end. Maciej introduced a cool approach of food deposits - getting rid of extra weight and having a nice prospect in the return journey. The biggest challenge was not to forget where the deposits were (sleep deprivation!)
The first section felt very nice, with a tailwind blowing, Maciej charging up mostly upfront: lightly loaded carbon road bike vs heavy loaded alloy gravel bike does make a difference.
Second section - very remote area, almost no cars, enjoyed the Milky Way and a moon rising in the valley. Did a couple of stops to refill water from the streams - I used the aquatabs just in case.
That ride was very enjoyable, we were fresh and the adventure has just started.
3 hours in and we had the first (and thankfully the last mechanical), a spoke on my heavily loaded bike has broken. Maciej thought our mission was other, but I'm quite used to fixing mechanicals so adjusted the other spokes not to rub the chainstays (hardest thing in the middle of night was figure out the direction to tighten/loosen the spokes).
Last third of the bike was the most challenging. Mostly gravel with a lot of rolling hills. Total elevation of the bike leg shows 1300m, 850m down, which speaks for itself.
There was no sleeping monsters on the first night but we saw a silly possum, rabbits, dears, cows and rabbits, all crossing our paths.
We arrive at TA1 which was very well described to us by Tim, happy with our time 5h and some change so far. Transition was ok but not super fast.
Leg 2
We started the run at 2:18am in the morning (leaving the bikes in the shed/fridge), only 10min before the big tsunami quakes but we didn't feel them! The first 3km go through a farm land and we were worried about the bulls, tried to keep pacing ourself for a long mission ahead and walked uphills. The important part was to find a trail down to the Hodder river and thanks to a timely Maciej's toilet stop I managed to spot it.
One of the features of climbing Tappy is going through the Hodder riverbed for 12 km and crossing it circa 80 times (only one way1). Maciejand I had a simultaneous thought "Freaking dejavu" as this looks pretty much like goats pass 3 weeks ago during the coast2coast race. We were hesitant of doing this section in the night due to the technicality of the terrain but it actually worked quite well. The headlights were good and you really focus on where and how you place your foot. Maybe you are not choosing the best lines but you are committed to the route and go relatively fast. Only hiccup was on when the trail went up the gorge for a kilometre (apparently there was a waterfall) we lost the trail and encountered some bush bashing Spanish (speargrass?) very spikes vegetation which stings like hell! We lost around 15min there but overall were feeling good on this section and were happy to see lights in the vicinity of the Huts around 6am.
Quick toilet stop and quick chat with fellow trampers in the Hutt who sounded a bit amazed on our missing "You are brave", they said. "Or totally stupid", I replied. We stashed some gels/bars in the hut for the return trip.
The upcoming leg was the hardest one with a push to the top and back. We started with a silly mistake - missed the Staircase stream trail entrance by following some misleading headlamps, which costed about 15min before we decided to go back to find the trail. The dawn has started breaking in and we were happy to farewell the black night. The climb is quite steep with a lot of cree which makes this section much harder than Hodder riverbed. It looks a while to adjust to the scatters rock markers during the trail (usually a small rock pyramid on top of a larger rock). Couple of times we were mislead by the wrong ridge - the trail followed a different route that we planned originally. Having said that - once we got a hold of trail finding we were quicker. There are many trampers at this time of the year, the huts were crowded and also we saw 4-5 cars in the carpark near the Hodder bridge. Sidenote: had a funny discussion with Maciej how this riverbed and such rough climbing conditions is called a trail in New Zealand whereas in Europe this would not be called a trail.
As we were getting higher we got some extra layers as it was getting a bit windy, chilly and the sun was rising from the other side of the valley. We didn't see the sun until we got 200m elevation wise from the top.
The route looked quite steep but the trail was quiet obvious over there. Reaching the summit was cool but we didn't hesitate much (e.g. Alex taking photos) as we knew the hardest part of the challenge was the second half. Our time at the top was just over 13hours. It was all downhill from there, this has two different meaning...
Leg 3
The fatigue was settling in so I was trying to be careful going downhill not to have an injury (I already rolled the ankle slightly in the riverbed!). I was trying to use the snowing technique sliding through the cree but the rocks mixture was not consistent so it was hard getting into a good rhythm. Also mentally we were prepared for a such a tough conditions of the climb (I think Tim tried warning us but we didn't listen). Not an ultra running track just fast walking (there was may be a 200m stretch was runnable though!). We were both getting tired but tried keeping the spirits high and remind ourself to eat/drink. Going down was faster, especially following the offical trail.
When reaching the Huts back we were confident we will chatch-up some time to aim at 24 hours. I was contemplating if we should have a 5min power nap at the Hut but the adrenaline kicked in and we kept pushing.
Maciej really pushed the pace and felt strong whereas I couldn't keep with him and then had a really big rock hit my left ankle which forced me to limp and slowed down my rock hopping to walking speed. Many swear words came out to Hodder valley during those moments. Going backwards on the waterfall bypass trail was quicker this time by following the trail although there was a very scare slip crossing where my Polish friend played the Russian roulette where I chose a more careful but longer/higher route (could not trust my feet at that stage).
Shame we both hit the low in the last 10km of the Hodder river, not much talking during the time. The usual mishaps which happen during adventure racing and long missions. This is where I saw the first sleep monsters - river rocks formed different shape of animals and weird wizard like creatures. We were counting down the kilometres till we get out of the river and that was ticking so slow (also you are not taking the straight line due to constant zigzagging). My ankle got better by end of the run as it got cold treatment from water. It was getting hot and every stream crossing I tried getting water on the head. Finally the tree with a stick marked with orange triangles marked the river exit point.
We refilled the water flusks to have some water for the lat bike. Last 3km on the farmland felt like eternity and Maciej felt very low.
The transition it not going to be fast...
Leg 4 I was looking forward the last bike leg only If I hadn't hit my lowest point. Theoretically we had a chance of hitting 24 but 5hr in this state with headwind, gravel and 850m of elevation was a big question mark. Also it was very hot and we had our full sleeves on (ready for evening/night riding)
The first pedal strokes uphill felt so hard but good we kept going didn't stop until the point where we needed water (aquatics rock!) and a quick rest before a big climb out.
It was good to finally see this valley in daylight, it looks gorgeous and very inviting for biking adventures.
I started feeling very slow on those rolling hills and looking forward getting on the paved section but I totally lost motivation physical and mental. We stop at T-70km mark to find the stashed coffein gels un der the road sign and by mistake I give Maciej to try a spare caffeine gels. He sparks off as a fire! He readjusts our goal for 25hours, leads the road section upfront and looks super strong and inspiring. Me, just trying to hang in there...the hardest part for me was Taylor pass, 5km climb on gravel with a nasty heading where I couldn't keep my team mate wheel. I just wanted to stop and throw the bike away! Those moment just need to be experienced in order to come over.... My second wind was on the other side of the pass - with a long gravel descend. I felt more comfortable with my tyres and then I ate a chocolate from Maciej's nutritional menu. When the dusk just settled I felt good again, probably too good as I pushed the pause a bit : Was calculating how fast we should go to hit 25hours and also looking forward that promised coke in Blenheim.
Last 27km from the coke stop were touch and go, it was good to have a goal and keep pushing. However the northerly made it statement and our 25hour tired body's could not hold 30km/h even on the paved roads.
At least we got the answer to the question - " Can this be done in 24hours!". Yes, totally but in our case it 25h7min. A great journey and result if you abstract it from the "under 24hr" goal.
Thanks Maciej, Tim & Ruth for the help and support for this mission.
What's next I wonder?!