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Nelson Vet Brendan Hickman is a seasoned One NZ GODZONER having competed in no less than seven Chapters with a variety of team mates over the years. He is back for more at Chapter 12 leading Team Nelson Vets. This week he appeared on TVNZ Breakfast show alongside PURE ADVENTURE Charitable Trustee Rob Nichol to talk all things GODZONE. We caught up with him to find out more.

Name all the GODZONE Chapters you have raced in?

Tasman – NeverRest, won Pursuit
Queenstown – Virbac Animal Health, won Pursuit
Fiordland – Virbac Animal Health – Pure race 13th
Canterbury Victory Vets – Pure 13th
Rotorua – Victory Vets – Pure 10th
Traverse – Nelson vets – Injury caused DNF at Serpintine
Southland – Nelson Vets – Pure 11th

What has GODZONE given you outside a very cool adventure experience?
When we first entered GODZONE we thought it was way beyond our abilities, so finishing previous chapters has been super rewarding. Every time I come back to ‘normal’ life, I find GodZone helps put everything in perspective. It is quite primal and raw while racing simply thinking about eating, drinking, moving forward in the right direction, how your team is doing and when/where/how much to sleep. Life always seems a lot easier in comparison!

Who are you racing Chapter 12 with and what are you looking forward to the most?
It’s a bit of a new combination as there’s been a few retirees. Dave Quested, Sakkie Meyer and Rachel Baker are all superb people with loads of GODZONE experience. I’m looking forward to racing with them and seeing how we deal with the challenges that pop up. Hopefully Sakkie is ready to carry all my gear?!

What do you expect the Marlborough course to offer in terms of a layered adventure?
Marlborough will be awesome. From Mt Tapuae-o-Uenuku to the Richmond ranges, Molesworth, a multitude of rivers (Wairau, Pelorus, Rainbow, Wakamarina) and the Marlborough Sounds, this race will go to very different landscapes very quickly.

What do you consider your best disciplines?
My teammates previously would have said getting us bluffed out, slow transitioning, falling asleep while walking and being able to talk rubbish for hours. I’d like to think my nav is pretty good, or maybe I’m just average at everything else!

What do you personally find the most challenging? Sleep deprivation…?
While sleep deprivation is certainly very tough, the thing I find most challenging is staying focused on simpler areas of navigation when super tired. It’s easy to make a mistake on these areas after having just successfully navigated challenging areas. It can be frustrating to the team too!

Best GODZONE memory to date?
Paddling up Lake Wakatipu from Kingston to Frankton and managing to hold off the team behind us by about 15 minutes. We hadn’t slept for 36 hours and it was tough. We were still pretty green and it was an awesome feeling getting to the finish line to our families.

What is important to your whole team racing as Nelson Vets?
Simply to turn up and do the best we can. There’s so many things we can’t control, so just concentrating on what we can control and doing the best we can as a team.

Why do you think GODZONE is so revered in adventure racing circles?
It consistently has set a benchmark of setting a top level course with loads of top teams turning up. Very successful international teams have come to New Zealand and realised the depth of talent here is significant. I guess the kiwi can-do attitude and access to outdoors means we have a population of very capable people.