NZ’s southernmost trail run
Stewart Island is hosting its own trail run challenge in an effort to bring more visitors to the island.
The Rakiura Challenge is a 34-kilometre trail run set to take place on October 5. Runners will race around the Rakiura Track, one of the Department of Conservation’s great walks.
It will be New Zealand’s southernmost trail run.
Rakiura Challenge race secretary Aaron Joy said he was surprised no-one had tried organising a running event for the island before.
Joy moved to the island about two years ago when he and his wife, Carol, took over the Stewart Island Backpackers.
He was looking for events to bring people to the island in the tourism shoulder season when the idea of the trail run around the Rakiura Track was raised.
Joy came from an events management background and had worked with the Dunedin City Council to help run events like the New Zealand Masters Games and the Fifa Under-20 World Cup.
During the peak of the summer season, many people were unable to book huts on the track so they would run the whole track in one day, Joy said.
They often commented that it was a really good run, which cemented the idea for him.
The Department of Conservation granted a concession to the organisers allowing one running event per year on the Rakiura Track for the next 10 years.
Entries would be limited to 250 people and Joy was confident they would go quickly when registrations opened in April.
Trail running events such as the Kepler Challenge and Routeburn Classic were very popular and he believed it would be the same for the Rakiura Challenge.
The first weekend of October was typically a quiet weekend for tourism operators, but one when they would typically have staff getting ready for the season, Joy said.
Rakiura Challenge race director Chris Cox said he thought the island would do really well out of the event.
Cox, a seasoned runner, is the race director for the Christchurch Marathon and has a running business guiding people along the Coast to Coast route.
In the running community there were many people who were middle-aged, liked doing marathons and travelling, and this event would offer them the perfect excuse to visit Stewart Island, Cox said. For some people the race could be the perfect lead into the Kepler Challenge.