Coast to Coast (race)

The event was created in 1983 by Christchurch personality Robin Judkins, who sold the rights to Queenstown-based tourism company Trojan Holdings in 2013.

[5] At the pre-race briefing for the tenth race, Judkins made the following statement: When I set out to do this event I had no idea it would ever grow to this size.

[6] After organising the race for 31 years, Judkins sold the rights in May 2013 to tourism company Trojan Holdings[7][8] for an undisclosed amount.

From Klondyke Corner, a 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) cycling leg along SH 73 brings competitors to the Waimakariri River at Mount White Bridge.

From 2015, the route was shifted north of the Waimakariri River to follow South Eyre Road, then travelling through north-eastern Christchurch to finish at New Brighton beach, a total distance just 500 metres shorter than the original.

The main reason for the change was to avoid competitors contending with numerous traffic lights through Christchurch's inner suburbs.

Three competitors attended from overseas: Dave Horning was a triathlete from the United States, Tom Barichello was from Canada, and the eventual race winner in the individual men's category was English anaesthetist Joe Sherriff, who was temporarily living in Dunedin.

Of the women, Stella Sweney from Nelson won decisively, over two and a half hours ahead of Annie Hope coming in second.

The inaugural race received little media attention, but this changed in 1984 with James Daniels from the 3ZM radio station in Christchurch competing in the event.

Competitors who were slower faced ever higher water levels and could not undertake the many river crossings by themselves, but had to wait for others to link arms.

[14] On the second day, a southerly had come through and the Waimakariri River was in flood; eleven competitors pulled out in this section, rescued by helicopter or jet boat, or simply giving up before entering the gorge.

He described his experience running the flooded Deception River section thus:[15] One moment we would be splashing upstream in ankle-deep water, and the next we would be in over our heads.

Joining hands, groups of athletes cautiously forded the swift-flowing river.Terry Newlands had the men's individual fastest time on the first day, but he was ill-prepared for the kayaking section.

Brian Sander, a science technician from Wellington, won the men's individual race, 26 seconds ahead of Greg Dobson.

Sandy Fletcher won the individual women's event, with Tui Elliot second and the previous winner, Stella Sweney, in third place.

Local radio stations gave progress updates and 3,000 spectators gathered at Sumner beach to see the competitors come in.

[19] Jane Reeves, a radiographer from Christchurch, won the individual women's event; she had been leading her category from the start of the race.

1982 Commonwealth Games gold medallist cyclist Craig Adair, who was establishing himself as a bike show owner at the time, was the event mechanic and he got cleaned out of spare parts by the crash.

Terry Newlands from Auckland lost one of the sole from his shoes with an hour to go on the mountain run, and this slowed him down, but owing to a strong performance on the river, he won the men's two-day event.

There were other events that took a whole day to complete, most notably the Ironman World Championship that had been held on Hawaii since 1978, but none of these included such difficult conditions.

Doctors were thus placed at the end of the mountain run, checking that the competitors were in a state that would allow them to continue, and none were pulled out of the field by the medical profession.

At Sumner, Prince had a 16-minute lead over John McKenzie, with a University of Canterbury student in third place – Steve Gurney.

Arriving back at the main road at Klondyke Corner, they saw a congregation of people and thought it must have been a large search and rescue party; they went over to offer their help.

For the first time, Judkins had celebrity entrants, with two former All Blacks putting their name forward: Brian Ford and Kevin Eveleigh.

John Jacoby entered the Longest Day after having come second in the 1987 team event with fellow Australian Andrew Maffett, who in 1988 was his support person.

He narrowly missed out on winning a NZ$35,000 Ford Laser TX3 Turbo, which was the price for the first competitor to break the 12-hour mark.

Denise Higgison from Tauranga was the last individual to finish the Longest Day in a time of 17:22:08 hours, but this secured her the win in her category.

Gurney and Prince also broke the 12-hour mark, but Jacoby had won the car (that year, a Suzuki was up for grabs) and a return trip to London.

[43] Braden Currie only registered for the race two days before it started and beat the previous year's winner, Dougal Allan, by over 20 minutes.

[45] The men's two-day tandem race was entered by former rugby player Richie McCaw and Olympic rower Nathan Cohen as a team, and their participation received much media coverage.