Scaling a building 317m taller than the Motueka Clock Tower beckons for seven Motueka firies.
The 11th Firefighter Sky Tower Challenge for the brigade ignites on 24 May.
It’s a fierce annual climb for hundreds of fully kitted firefighters rucking a 25kg carbon fibre cylinder up 51 flights of stairs inside the 328m Auckland landmark.
Sparking funds for Leukaemia and Blood Cancer New Zealand is the fuel. Nancy Ceja-Garcia and Amanda Theriault are first-time challengers, with Tracey Hovenden, Alan Ball, Bec Bryan, Kyle Silcock and team captain Jess Nelipovich a combined 23 years under their belt.
Jess says the event bursts a hot atmosphere, it’s “a real privilege”, and there is a personal link.
“One of the reasons I climb is for my cousin Steve [back in the United States], he was diagnosed with leukemia as an adult, and is now five years cancer free,” she says.
“He donates every year, and he watches the live stream when we climb. It’s a really cool way to connect with the community as well, we’ve been to the RSA, we had a car wash, and we do a quiz at the Sprig & Fern to fundraise.”
Jess says $12,000 is this year’s target. She says the community support includes sponsorship from the Motueka Recreation Centre to access its stairmaster and training gear to simulate their climb.
The team’s training grounds in the past six months have also included Mount Campbell and Abel Tasman National Park with preparations undertaken with a 12 to 13kg cylinder.
Extra weight will be added to their training sessions as challenge day spreads closer.
“If you head down to the Rec Centre in the evenings now, you’ll start to see people training in their structural pants, in their tunics and with the [breathing apparatus] cylinder on,” Jess says.
Each team member hopes to be home and hosed in under 30 minutes, and “little speed demon” Bec Bryan will bring the heat to scale the more than 1000 steps in less than 20.
“We’ve got high hopes for Bec this year to smash it out of the park,” she says.
To donate visit: firefighterschallenge.org.nz/2025-motueka-volunteer-fire-brigade
