George's dad is pretty much a pro photographer, so most of the pictures in this post are from him.
My ARC this year went pretty much like this:
Friday night:
Check in and race briefing
receive maps
plan route and final packing
 |
| Studying the maps and planning a route |
sleep
Saturday:
Race kicked off with a raft building and paddle leg
then a short bike
a run/trek on a sick coast trail, including a stream bash to a waterfall
a long bike section, including a optional section through the local bike park, a rifle shoot, and a 300m tunnel!
a run/trek, including a zipline thingy across a river and a swim to get 2 checkpoints.
This was by far the most exciting part of our race, as the trail we took ended just short of the zipline due to a rock slide, and rather than run back and around to the track on the other side of the river, we decided to slide/fall down a 5m cliff/bank, cross the river and climb a equally as foreboding cliff on the other side. We made it with only minor scrapes and bruises, but everyone was pretty scared, because we dislodged some pretty big rocks, I caught the two girls after falling down the bank, and then we had to use a rope to get up the other side! It certainly made for a good post-race story though! 
one last final bike
finish!
dinner and debrief
The three teams from New Plymouth took first, second and third, and Danny and Oak's junior teams cleaned up as well, so we were all pretty happy and exhausted on the way home :D
