About 150 mountain runners from all over New Zealand entered the event, which was to have been a straight climb.
However, heavy rain around the region forced organisers to resort to a contingency plan, which meant the runners completed a loop course to keep them off the upper reaches of the mountain.
Dougal Thorburn, of Wellington Scottish, defended his national title in style, completing the course in 1hr 3min 46sec, 6min ahead of Caden Shields (Hill City University) in the 13.86km event.
"I took it easy the first couple of loops; that was the plan and then with two loops to go I thought ‘let's go, I'm out of here'.
"It was just superb, I just loved it,'' Thorburn said.
Queenstown's Sarah Douglas, of Christchurch Avon, came back from an injury which kept her out of competition for most of last year, winning the 7.6km senior women's event, in 41min 53sec, almost 3 min ahead of Hill City's Shireen Crumpton.
Meanwhile, Winton's Jack Beaumont claimed the under-20 men's title again, completing the 7.6km course in 36min 59sec, beating Tommy Hayes of Auckland City Athletics, by 3min.
Emerson Deverell, of Hamilton City Hawks won the under-20 women's 4km race in 28min 54sec from Nelson's Sophie Smith.
Stephen Day, of Wellington Scottish, put together a dominant performance in the masters men's category (13.86km), winning in 1hr 8min 53sec.
There was also a good battle in the 7.6km masters women's division among Paula Canning, Jackie Mexted and Elina Usher.
Canning was the victor finishing in 46min 34sec, followed closely by Mexted (47min 29sec) and Ussher (48min 14sec).
