It is definitely easier returning somewhere than going there for the first time. with just a week before we depart, the accommodations and vehicles are booked, boats arranged, and gear mostly organized in just a fraction of the time it took to get things together last year. Barb (also doing the race) has also been a big help in getting everything looked after.

Latest reports are that the river is running comfortably higher than last year (when it was quite low during our training sessions), but we have to hope that the current rainfall levels which are wreaking havoc in parts of the country and australia won’t be a factor when it comes to the race time (and that they stop mucking things up for the locals, too).

our goal is to provide coverage throughout the run-up and during the event, wherever possible, via this website and text messages to facebook and twitter (which show up on the right). sportzhub.com will also be covering the race, feeding information through to www.coasttocoast.co.nz.

We race on February 12th, but if you’re in North America it’ll be the 11th. the way the time change works, the race will start around noon if you’re in the eastern time zone, and with an estimated 12 hour time to complete it, should be wrapping up a little before midnight. more to come!