A Cyclic Saga Tale

Myself and Gary are parked up in Horace, the gorgeous grey Holden at the check point at the top of Lighthouse Road. A desolate place with a bitterly cold wind blowing madly. It's a honkin' 15 minutes down to the control by the lighthouse at Akaroa Heads, and a punishing 45 minutes grunt back out. One team apparently thought they'd make it easier by leaving their gear at the last control point before the lighthouse. Of course this is totally against the rules. Another team returned to our check point laughing hysterically. They had spied the team's gear with the score card still strapped to the outside of one of their packs. We realised that these jokers had descended all the way to the lighthouse and didn't have a scorecard to punch - and so missing out on the big 40 points. A kind of Cyclic Saga justice.

Sam Maitland - winner of the inaugural Cyclic Saga and a marshall during the 1996 event