Godzone, the expedition-length adventure race, is confirmed to return to Queenstown for a second chapter next March. Entries open on June 1.
Last month, 31 teams competed over 522km. The winning team on the full course raced for 87 hours; the last full course competitors took 124 hours.
Teams that failed to reach checkpoints by certain times were pushed on to either the intermediate, short, or endeavour courses. Six teams were unranked because of assistance received and three withdrew.
Warren Bates said he and fellow director Adam Fairmaid already had a good idea of the course design.
"What we need to do now is go through the consent process with Doc, Linz and land owners to confirm what we want to do is feasible."
He was busy planning the course before winter set in as snow made it harder to plan routes.
"There's a pre-winter focus so that in winter we can focus on other things."
He had been "blown away by the positive response" and speculated next year's chapter would probably sell out.
Godzone chapter one, which is New Zealand's only expedition-length race, was limited to 36 team entries, but only 33 four-person teams entered. Even if entries surged, Mr Bates said he was wary of allowing too many teams on the course.
"There's a big difference to running 30 or 40 to running 100; that might have a big impact to how likely we are to get a consent or not."
There were also logistical issues with running more teams on such an extensive course.
More teams would cancel out the "wilderness experience" which was essential to this kind of competition.
Media spokeswoman Margo Berryman said March 9-16 had been chosen because of more favourable weather conditions.
Even so, gale-force winds forced the closure of the Earnslaw Burn section, in which teams climbed "just below" the mountain summit.
Ms Berryman said several international teams had been in contact to secure their entry for next year.
The website, which displayed live tracking of all teams, had boosted international interest.
"A lot of the response from the international teams has come from the website, the live website. We got really amazing feedback and it seems to have whetted the tastebuds of racers overseas."
Due to the secret nature of the course, Mr Bates would only say they were looking at crampons, glacier areas, and white water.
Next year would continue to up the ante because "people don't want it watered down ... they want a big distance between them and civilisation".
