Team Victory Boxing

  • 1 March 2018
  • Fiona Lulham

Update on Godzone

In an incredible display of determination and perseverance, Team Victory Boxing finished 14th - best summed up by Simon himself:

"GODZone Fiordland was everything we expected it to be and then some. Long, ball-busting stages made even more challenging by the rugged terrain, dense bush and incredibly difficult navigation. Thank God Fiordland's infamously bad weather and sandflies didn't unleash their fury otherwise the suffering would have been far, far worse than it already was.

But for all the considerable challenges we faced during seven days, 11 hours and 38 minutes and 550 km of trekking, paddling, mountain biking, caving and abseiling through Fiordland's wilderness, we all agreed afterwards that it was an amazing experience. We also agreed that one of the main reasons we enjoyed it was our ability to work well as a team. Everyone did their bit and that helped an average bunch of athletes perform well above expectations. Simon junior's navigation was incredible, Dene's white water experience and massive effort to help Jane on the brutal bike carry up Percy Saddle and Jane's dogged determination and ability to keep going and going even when she was totally exhausted were inspirational. I was so, so proud of them all.

We also retained our sense of humour, which although at times was pretty lame, and that helped lift our spirits at key times. Dene's spectacular case of trench ass (most normal racers got this infection on their feet but Dene had to be different) was the butt of many jokes while my suggestion to Simon junior not to make any spur of the moment decisions when he was studying the map and deciding which spur to go down led to a flurry of spurious puns that made me laugh and my teammates groan.

Knowing we were racing to help Victory Boxing also inspired us to keep going as did the wonderful support we have had from our families, friends and all the businesses who have generously donated to our fundraiser for Victory Boxing.

A special thanks goes to Andrew Spittal, Murray Sturgeon, Green Hornet Landscaping and Gary from FreshChoice Richmond for their amazing generosity and our family of supporters, Hayley, John and Mary, Jude, Em and Penny who made the long journey to Te Anau and all those back in Nelson who helped us get to GODZone. We owe you all big time!

 

 

The epic Godzone adventure that is 650km of trekking, kayaking, rafting, mountain biking (and not much sleeping) through Fiordland has begun.  92 teams of 4 (368 competitors) have started Stage 1 which is packraft/trek/packraft over 110kms.  It is expected that teams will take between 27 and 48 hours to complete this first stage that includes a 140-meter high abseil at the end.  There are 7 stages in all which teams will complete in 7-10 days.

We are proud to be following and throwing our support behind Team Victory Boxing who have not only taken on the challenge that is Godzone, but have been fundraising for Victory Boxing as well.  If you'd like to support Victory Boxing AND Team Victory Boxing, you can make a donation via Give-a-little and follow the teams progress on the live tracking here.

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