Elements battled in adventurer title bids

Press, 4 February 1986, Page 14

Elements battled in adventurer title bids

PA Wellington Post Office supervisor, Wayne Hamilton, aged 45, battled torrential rain, sand-flies and thick bush to cross a remote area of Fiordland. Philip Rush, aged 22, made New Zealand’s longest swim when he completed a double crossing of Lake Taupo, 90km in 23 hours. The two men are joint Wellington regional winners of the Double Brown-sponsored Adventurer of the Year Award. They join two men from the South Island and two from Auckland for the finals, the winner of which will be decided on February 18 in Wellington. Why did Hamilton do it? “I’ve been asking myself that,” he said. "I suppose because I get a tremendous feeling of self-achievement and reward. And I like the remoteness.”

He said the competition gave New Zealanders a

chance to appreciate activities like tramping, which took place in remote areas out of the public eye. “These activities are not like organised sports and this is one way of showing our dedication.” His attempt, with three companions, to find a route from the West Cape to Long Sound, began in hail and a thunderstorm. They battled tough, sodden bush up and down the sides of valleys and swam laden with packs across rivers. He said it was magnificent. The men collected species of insects, and photographed flowers for scientific investigation later. “We were plagued by the insects, hordes of sandflies which ferociously attacked any area of bare skin. “When you clapped your hands you got about 50 of them. They' got up your nose, in your ears, drowned in your tea and in the porridge in the

morning.” He said that fly killer sprayed over his body slowed them down a bit

Rush, also known for his double crossing of Cook Strait, trains about five hours a day in the water beginning about 4.30 am. He also lifts weights and runs. Rush said he was planning a three-way swim of the English Channel and a swim of 130 km around Lake Taupo next. “It’s a challenge,” he said. “It’s there, so I go out and do it.” The northern region finalists are Rob Pine, a 30-year-old graphic artist who has learned to mix his interest in photography with his passion for skydiving, and Patil Dixon, conqueror of the world’s toughest ironman course in Hawaii.

Pine began skydiving 12 years ago, about the same time as he bought his. first 35mm camera. His first attempts at mid-air photography were failures, but as his skydiving technique

improved, so did his camerawork.

His entry in the Adventurer of the Year Contest involves a potentially hazardous night-time skydive and a parachute landing in Auckland harbour. Dixon, aged 35, was so obese in 1978 that his doctor warned that he would be dead within a few years if he did not lose weight He began with a Weight Watchers programme and followed up with a regimen of exercise. The joy of being fit for the first time in his life spurred Dixon on to competitive running. His first Bkm run took 80 minutes, but was enough to encourage him to train for his first marathon. Nine marathons later, Dixon opted for the challenge of the triathlon and in March 1985 lined up in his first event in Auckland.

Seven months later, after three more triathlons, Dixon completed the

Hawaiian Ironman contest.

The southern region is represented by Gottleib Braun-Elwert, a mountain guide who, with two companions, completed a ski traverse from the Godley Valley in Canterbury to the Fox Glacier in Westland in a single day.

Braun-Elwert set out from the Rankin Hut on January 14, 1985 and, after a traverse linking the major glaciers of the Mount Cook region, reached the Fox Glacier by 7 p.m. The trio travelled 46,700 m, a vertical climb of 3959 m and a vertical ski descent of 3562 m.

Henry van Asch, aged 22, a farm worker from Christchurch, who holds the New Zealand speed ski-ing record, is the other South Island finalist.

Last year van Asch became the first New Zealander to exceed 100 m.p.h. on skis, when he reached 100.22 m.p.h. in a timed run at the Turoa skifield on Mount Ruapehu.