The Hillary Challenge South Island is a 6-hour adventure race with participation as the overarching goal. It is open to all Year 11 – 13 school students regardless of experience and is a great introduction to adventure racing and the only event of its type available to school students.
There are two challenges held each year – one in the North Island and the other in the South Island.
No prior experience is necessary as these challenges are designed to attract students of all levels so there is a mix of levels from beginner to experienced at the event and the students that have done a bit more adventure racing tend to just do things faster and collect more checkpoints.
The event involves a bit of running/trekking, mountain biking (not too technical) and orienteering as the base of the event. To add to the mix there are fun challenges and problem-solving tasks on both land and water. Teams of eight are required to stay together at all times.
We use the Hillary Challenge South Island event to help select the best teams in each of the South Island regions to take part in the 5-day long Hillary Challenge National Final that is held at our Tongariro Centre in October.