The Motatapu Icebreaker is a 51 kilometre mountain bike and 42.2 kilometre off road marathon event on a High Country route between Lake Wanaka and Arrowtown, in the beautiful South Island of New Zealand. The private road is only accessible on one day a year – for this event. The course is a real off-road adventure race. There are only a few officials dotted along the course and if you come to grief there are only other competitors to help you.

Motatapu Icebreaker 2007

In a day of highlights, here are my top ten on race day in the Motatapu Icebreaker 2007 Mountain Bike race. In chronological order:

1. Breakfast at the Crowne Plaza Queenstown

The last chance to carbo and caffeine load! Sitting down to the huge spread of one of the best hotel breakfasts I have ever had. Best of all is that I can have as many espressos, lattes or flat whites as I like included in the full breakfast price of just $26!

2. Getting Close to a Pop Star

Biking past Shania Twain’s house on her private road. Probably the closest I will get to an international pop star’s house!

3. Go Girl!

My wife Fleur and I have only been cycling for a couple of years and she has done a lot more off-road than I have. She is a great hill climber and has much better technique than I do. On a particularly steep hill she was one of only two riders not to dismount and walk. She overtook about 30 riders and almost everyone cheered her on! I yelled out “Go Fleur. You’re my hero!” Needless to say I was slowly plodding my way up hill, pushing my bike.

4. The High Point

Getting to the highest point of the race was so hard it was ridiculous. At one stage I wondered what had possessed me to torture myself in this way. If someone had forced me to do what I was doing to myself, Amnesty International would be on their case. On the last final incline I was so exhausted I pushed my bike uphill with my eyes closed trying to conserve energy. I listened to those around me to make sure I was heading in the right direction. Like I said – ridiculous! When I finally got to the top I was too knackered to enjoy the view at first. I sat down and drank half a bottle of water and ate a chocolate nut bar and tried to stop panting. We ended up resting there for 20 minutes and in the last few minutes I started to enjoy the view.

5. The Stunning Scenery

The hills, the mountains, the rivers and streams, the golden tussock swaying in the breeze and the blue sky – all combine to create a breathless (in more ways than one) vista.

6. The Downhill Sections

For me, biking uphill is pain and exhaustion, but going downhill is the gravy. I’ve always loved going as fast as I can but unfortunately my technical skills are no match for my idiocy. I just love passing all of those people who had breezed past me on the uphill sections and I find myself whooping with delight as I smash through a stream or skid around a bend in the track.

7. The Camaraderie

They say it is impossible to be depressed when exercising. In fact I found it impossible to find anyone who wasn’t courteous, friendly, helpful and happy. People stopped to help each other, checked people who had fallen off, and encouraged each other. When my mixture of speed and poor technique inevitably ended in a high speed crash a fellow competitor picked me up and helped me on my way. On another downhill section, even the person I ran into the back of stopped and helped to pull me up from the bank I had gone over.

8. The Finish Line

After four hours and ten minutes of riding and thirty seven minutes of stops, to cross the finish line was sheer bliss. This was only the sixth time I had been off-road on a bike and I made it!

9. The Massage

There are times when the cost of something is completely divorced from its value to you. The after-race massage was one such time. I would have happily paid $50, but to get a 20 minute massage for $20 was the best bargain I have had in the last 12 months. It felt great during and amazing afterwards.

10. Room Service and Bed at the Crowne Plaza Queenstown

To say that my wife and I were exhausted that evening would be a like saying the scenery on the ride was nice – a gross understatement. We were too hammered to eat at the restaurant so we ordered room service. Fleur fell asleep before the food arrived and had to be revived. My body was craving carbohydrates and protein and the delicious hamburger did not disappoint. We ate propped up in bed and then eased down into the crispy white sheets and fell deeply asleep.


Details of the Race

For the uninitiated, the Motatapu Icebreaker is a 51 kilometre mountain bike and 42.2 kilometre off road marathon event on a High Country route between Lake Wanaka and Arrowtown, in the beautiful South Island of New Zealand. The private road is only accessible on one day a year – for this event. The course is a real off-road adventure race. There are only a few officials dotted along the course and if you come to grief there are only other competitors to help you.

We took the bus from Queenstown with two Australian Iron-Man competitors who were doing this race for fun. We met up with them afterwards and they could not believe how much of a rugged, beautiful and remote adventure race it was. They said there was nothing like it in Australia – and we were not surprised!

2007 was the third time the event was run and entry numbers were limited to 2,000 mountain bikers and 600 runners. These places were quickly filled, especially by people who had competed previously.

2,000! That is a lot of bikes and a lot of cyclists to get across the start line. It is also a lot of people to overtake and to be overtaken by.

The race starts in the picturesque Glendu Bay of Lake Wanaka. It runs through the Motatapu, Glencoe, and Soho stations. The race finishes by crossing the beautiful Arrow River four times in quick succession.

We caught the competitors’ bus from Queenstown and I was surprised that at 42 years of age I was one of the youngest on the bus. Iconic Adventures confirmed that most of the entries were from people in the 35-45 age group, but there were a lot of people in their fifties and even one 78 year old! Given the age of the competitors I wondered if many of them were responding to that horrible concept of the “mid-life crisis”. You know, the thought that they had better get out and do something before the only wheels they can use are on a powered wheel-chair. But I would have to say “Crisis, what crisis?”. These were healthy, successful, smiling, engaging people – having a great time.

I suspect the real victims of the supposed “mid-life crisis” are those couch potatoes who last rode a bike as a teenager. I’d love to shake them and yell “Get out there! We live in the most beautiful country in the world – and you’re missing it!”

There were also a lot of women racing. Iconic Adventures advised there were approximately 60% male and 40% female competitors. In my parents’ generation, women rode bikes seldom if at all after they left school – what an enormous sociological change in just thirty years!

There is only one way that the weekend could have been improved. The day before the race, I would have loved to have taken a helicopter ride from Queenstown to Wanaka and then along the race course. This would be about 15 minutes in a helicopter and we would happily have paid $150 each. Other competitors we talked to agreed. Are there any aviation entrepreneurs out there? Arrange the helicopter trip and we will be first in line for 2008!


Oli Hille
www.author.co.nz

Oli Hille’s race sponsor was the Crowne Plaza Queenstown.