NZ’s Longest Running Adventure Race Celebrates 20 Years with New ‘Adventure Rogaine’ Format And a Brand-New Cure Kids Category

Roganing for a reason

Challenge yourself in the Coromandel on 7 March 2020

With 20 years now under their race belt, 2020 is an important milestone for Adventure Race Coromandel. As the longest-running adventure race in New Zealand, they’ve experienced the rise of popularity in this challenging sport – with females also outnumbering males in last years’ event. The next event is to be held on March 7th 2020 and in the new format of adventure racing called the “adventure rogaine”. The race will be based from the site of a proposed new Outdoor Camp close to Coromandel Town and will involve a series of stages, including trekking, mountain biking and kayaking or an alternative water- based activity. Each stage will be a rogaine in its own right, with a time limit and a number of point-scoring checkpoints. There will also be the famous ARC Mystery activities including the “Temple of Doom” for which you will need a whip and a wetsuit.
If this is tickling your fancy, take it one step further and raise vital funds for Cure Kids at the same time by entering the Cure Kids category.

Background to ARC races and contribution to charitable organisations:

Keith and Rita Stephenson have been running sporting events since the 1980s. They got together with Andy Reid in the year 2000 to form ARC events, and to date have run over 70 events together attracting over 30,000 competitors. One of the events in their portfolio, Adventure Race Coromandel, has also been raising funds for the Spirit of Coromandel Trust; which is working toward establishing an outdoor pursuit centre on the Coromandel for youth and has sent young locals to outdoor education courses for 19 years.
Since the start of these adventure races, they’ve been witness to the surge in popularity of such challenging events.

“I personally love the team aspect of the sport and the camaderie and excitement that comes from going into an adventure where you are not sure exactly what to expect and visiting places off the beaten track.” Andy Reid, Director of Adventure Race Coromandel

And the shift to the rogaine format is becoming more popular too:

“The shift to the rogaine format certainy increases the emphasis more towards strategy and navigation and less to physical strength and endurance”

Now to celebrate 2020, they’re taking it one step further and have introduced a brand-new category – the Cure Kids 8-hour rogaine. Designed to replace the previous Cure Kids Great Adventure Race (which was unfortunately stopped in 2018), this new category encourages participants to raise vital funds for Cure Kids at the same time.

“With every donation, collaboration, voluntary effort and gesture of support for Cure Kids, we are one step closer to helping our talented researchers focus on Big Research for Little Lives. Thank you for literally putting your bodies on the line with the wonderful support of ARC so together we can realise our vision for a healthier, brighter future for our Tamariki.” Frances Benge, CEO of Cure Kids

About Cure Kids and Adventure Race Coromandel

Cure Kids – Big Research for Little Lives
Cure Kids focus on raising funding to enable high-impact, New Zealand-based medical research to help save, extend and improve the lives of children diagnosed with serious life-impacting and life-limiting health conditions. Cure Kids was established by Rotary in 1971 as the Child Health Research Foundation, and since then have invested more than $40 million in New Zealand research which has helped to shape and vastly improve the way children who live with serious diseases and health conditions are diagnosed and treated.

Adventure Race Coromandel – Enter the Unknown…
The ARC is a community-based event and is put together by local Coromandel people and a large number of local volunteers. The course travels over a large tract of land which includes and administered by DOC, local Iwi land and a number of private landowners, all of whom have kindly given us permission to use their land.The net proceeds from this race go into the Spirit of Coromandel Trust which has been established to encourage and support local people, particularly youngsters into sporting and outdoor activities and to put something back into the land that we use for the enjoyment of future generations.

Find out more about the race, or sign up to register
Fundraising for Cure Kids? Find out more here: https://curekids.org.nz/events/adventure-race-2020/
Other race options: https://www.arcevents.co.nz/

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