Seagate won the 2014 Godzone race early yesterday, making it three in a row at the event for the champion multisporters.
The winners crossed the finish line in Kaikoura at 6.40am, 89 hours and 36 minutes after starting on Saturday afternoon.
Welcomed by a thrilled crowd of family, friends and fans, the team paddled through relatively calm conditions to land on the beach.
Team leader Nathan Fa'avae spoke highly of the 520km course.
''It was a very challenging course, particularly Mt Tapu O Nuku, because there is no easy way up there,'' Fa'avae said.
''There was a lot of blended terrain to travel through that we really enjoyed. It was a great journey and one we are very proud to have finished.''
Seagate navigator Chris Forne was equally effusive about where the team had travelled.
''The highlight was the second trek over the Glenn Wye range and down to the river. It was soft underfoot and lovely bush and we travelled through most of it during daylight, so some really good moments there.''
Stuart Lynch loved the paddle through the Hurunui River.
''It was a top canoe and very cool in the rapids and some nice surprising bounces further down as well,'' Lynch said.
The Godzone win is a first for Seagate on the 2014 World Adventure Racing Series calendar. Fa'avae said it was important to get it under their belt.
''We came into this event with a collective goal to start the year on a positive note, take first place and send a clear message to other international competitors that we are a team to be respected.''
Race directors Adam Fairmaid and Warren Bates congratulated the team on its success, and Bates said it was a textbook win by the very strong foursome.
''This is a signal that Seagate are back in form and lays down a challenge to others in the AR series,'' Bates said.
''They raced so decisively from the get-go and never let up, pushing on at every point.''
Seagate earns an entry in the Adventure Racing World Series Championships in Ecuador in November.
The all-Wanaka-based R&R Sport Torpedo 7 Adventure Race Team finished strongly over the final 26km kayak into Kaikoura to claim second.
Captained by Richard Anderson and made up of members Jo Williams, Bob McLachlan and Simon Bowden, it was an impressive achievement by a non-professional team.
McLachlan estimated they had only about eight hours sleep over the 4 days of full-on racing.
''There were definitely highs and lows. Moments of `we are never going to catch up','' he said of the times when the team was battling behind eventual third place-getter Absolute Wilderness NZ and fourth-finishing team Vida de Aventura, of which Wanaka 18-year-old Charlie Murray was a member.
Low points for the R&R Sport Torpedo 7 team were Anderson suffering from a stomach upset on the first day and the loss of a helmet on the first 51km trek stage.
The team spent 90 minutes searching for it and was then given an hour's time penalty, which it served at the next transition, for not having the helmet.
McLachlan said the scenery on the 38km Glynn Wye trek was incredible but the following 101km canoe down the Hurunui River was ''a nightmare''. Bowden and Anderson's boat developed a puncture, so duct tape, a stone and a rubber patch were all employed to fill the hole, albeit rather unsuccessfully as the glue failed, so bailing out water constantly was essential.
Finishing about 7pm, the team indulged in a pie then fish and chips and was eagerly anticipating a hot shower and some sleep.
