Bikepacking enthusiasts will gather in Golden Bay this weekend to take on a gruelling challenge that takes riders to remote coastlines and through national parks on a mix of sealed and gravel roads.
Participants have to connect six points - the northern tip of the South Island at Cape Farewell, Brown Hut at the start of the Heaphy Track, the Anatori River on the West Coast, Tōtaranui Beach in the Abel Tasman, the Rameka Track at the top of the Tākaka Hill & Trilobite Hut in the Cobb Valley - in 36 hours.
Brian Alder was living in Golden Bay when he came up with the idea for the Six Corners Challenge. Inspired by a similar road race that traversed the corners of the bay by road, he mapped out what it would look like to ride on unpaved roads, to the far reaches of the region.
The course covers roughly 450 kilometres, with around 6500 metres of elevation gain.
Brian and a handful of other riders first set out to give it a go in 2017.
It was like, 'oh, yeah, this works, it's about the right distance, it's quite challenging, but it's doable'," he said.
Almost 10 years on, the challenge is still going strong. Riders aren't allowed any assistance and must be fully self sufficient. There's no registration, no entry fee and no official tracking unless a rider chooses to submit proof they've fully completed it.
Brian said it took riders into remote, scenic places that many people wouldn't otherwise visit.
"I think some of the rides, especially down the West Coast to Anatori and up the Cobb Road into the head of the Tākaka River are particularly amazing pieces of road through National Parks and some of the best riding in the country I would argue."
With no set order for the points to be completed in, he said the magic of the event was in seeing different people cycling in all different directions and not knowing how much of it they had completed.
"One of the nice things about it is you can turn up and be invisible and completely do your own thing and go home again. Some people love that, they just have their own personal challenge and it's not for anyone else to know about."
In recent years, the number of people taking part has grown to around 80. Around 20 percent each year make it to all six corners.
Wellingtonian Jim Ashley didn't know about the challenge until he saw it pop up on Strava.
"I saw a friend of mine had ridden this ridiculous looking ride, about 450 kilometres and it took him 24 hours and I didn't realise it was an event, I thought he was just a bit nuts and had gone out and ridden this ridiculous looking course by himself."
When Jim noticed some of Brian's other adventures, like Tour Te Waipounamu, a bikepacking race the length of New Zealand, he realised Six Corners was an organised event and he said he was "absolutely keen to give it a go".
Jim currently holds the record for the fastest time on Six Corners, completing it in 20 hours and 21 minutes in 2024.
"It got pretty hard, towards the tail end I was starting to get quite hungry, it was 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning and there were very few resupply points and I was running out of food and I was ready to finish."
He said because each of the corners required cycling out and back on the same road, you often saw other riders.
"You can see the people you're riding with and you get a wave from your competitors as you're going past. There's quite a lot of solidarity there, which is a really nice aspect of the race and it's not something you experience when you're doing the big, long point-to-point rides."
Karen Le Sueur was living in Wellington when her husband suggested they give the Six Corners Challenge a go.
Her first attempt, back in 2020, was in terrible weather.
"I had a really good first half but in the second half, the rain hit and it was biblical, torrential, West Coast Golden Bay kinda rain and my jacket leaked like a sieve and I was having some knee problems so I ended up pulling out after four corners."
It didn't put her off, she went on to complete it in 2021, and then again when she set the record in 2023 as the fastest woman to complete the challenge in 27 hours and 39 minutes.
"The beauty of the event is it's about the challenge, but it's also about the camaraderie and the social side of things... it's free, you do as many or as little corners as you like, it's completely a personal challenge."
The event will be Dave Schaper's first attempt at bikepacking after he heard about it from a friend.
"I've been to all six corners, but definitely not on a bike and it's a little bit daunting, driving to some of those six corners is a really long drive so I'm not sure what it will be like to do it under my own steam."
He's expecting it to be type two fun, enjoyable in retrospect.
"It's not like closed roads, you register and here's your bib number, it's people who are interested and want to have a go and that's part of the appeal as well.
"There's a little bit less pressure. It's not a race, it's an adventure and to see how far you can personally go."
The clock will start ticking for riders in Tākaka's main street, at 6am on Saturday.
This story was first published on rnz.co.nz
