New Zealanders Sophie Hart and Nathan Fa'avae have won the Yukon 1000 adventure race, after paddling 1000 miles from Canada to Alaska. Photo: Supplied/ Yukon 1000
Two New Zealanders have won the toughest and longest paddling race in the world, recording the second fastest completion time ever.
Marlborough-Tasman residents Sophie Hart and Nathan Fa'avae have completed the Yukon 1000 in six days and 23 minutes.
The race can be done in canoes or kayaks, with a two-person team, and involves paddling 1000 miles along the Yukon River from White Horse in Canada to Dalton Highway Bridge in Alaska, through remote landscapes.
Fa'avae said the pair paddled 18 hours a day, stopping only for the mandatory six hours overnight.
"What makes it hard is ... just sitting in one spot, obviously you know, using your arms as your propulsion and essentially just getting uncomfortable in the boat and having to just tolerate that or deal with levels of discomfort," Fa'avae said.
"We went from everything to really cold, lightning-thunderstorms to fairly extreme, almost desert-like heat, paddled through a forest fire, you know there's heaps of mosquitos in places. I guess there's just lots of things that make it overall a pretty authentic adventure."
Adventure sports athletes Sophie Hart and Nathan Fa'avae are both from the Marlborough-Tasman area. Photo: Supplied/ Yukon 1000
The teammates have completed a number of multi-day adventure races during the last 14 years, Fa'avae said.
"You sort of do emerge a better person for it, like you kind of learn, you always learn things about yourself.
"You obviously learn a lot about the environment you're passing through as well, like we saw lots of moose and bears and you know, it's a midnight sun here, so it's 24 hours of daylight and there's little communities down the river.
"I think it's an experience that we can be grateful and fortunate to have, as well as just get out and do something that we love."
The pair came through the race fairly unscathed, though both were a bit sunburnt.
Fa'avae also developed tendonitis in one hand and forearm, caused by overuse, he said.
"You do get knocked around a bit, I'm not going to lie about that, but overall we're in pretty good shape."
