MAGNIficent 2 Chat #1 (August 2025)
- Bend Racing
- Aug 22
- 9 min read
Updated: Oct 30
The Magnificent Race 2026 - Chat 1
Welcome everyone, or welcome back if you joined us last year for round one.
We're pretty stoked to kick off the journey to the second edition of the Magnificent Adventure Race with our first official newsletter. While we’ve been quietly working in the background since the day after MAG 1 ended, we’re now ready to reveal some of the details about what to expect for MAG 2. As you’d expect, this year is going to be a whole new race course filled with fresh challenges, but it will still have that same magnificent spirit of endurance, teamwork, and raw exploration you know and love. Here we go!
A New Location: The Wild Catlins
Edition 1 explored the heartland of Central Otago. Edition 2 heads further South, journeying from the heart of Southland through the stunning and rugged Catlins Region. You’ll be travelling through a land of crazy cliffs, beautiful beaches, ancient native forests, and along a coastline that's been sculpted by the legit power of the Southern Ocean. There will be waterfalls abound, unique wildlife is everywhere, and you’ll be treated to a plethora of jaw-dropping views. This is New Zealand after all–what else would you expect?
The immersion in these places will be significant. You will have choices to make. The journey will not be without risks. And while the Catlins may be the heart of the 2026 course, we want to remind you that the MAGNIficent is big–really big–too big–for any one region to contain.
The core principles that drove the creation of The Magnificent Race will remain. MAGNIficent 2 will be another true test of endurance, navigation, and teamwork in NZ’s iconic landscapes, provided in an unsupported format with a continuing commitment to minimizing our impact on the environment as much as possible.
What to Expect
The “Catlins” course will be packed with natural features and disciplines that will showcase the areas you are traveling through. Here's a sneak peak at what’s in store:
Bush Navigation: If you’re from abroad (or from Canterbury!), this will be a treat, but a punishing one. If you’re going after the PRO points, and maybe even if you’re not, you should expect some serious bush bashing and tricky navigation as you trek through some of NZ's most untouched coastal rainforests. Your compass and map reading skills will either be your salvation, or (if they are sub-par) your downfall.
Waterfalls: The Catlins is famous for its iconic waterfalls, and yep, they'll be part of the course. And if you think we’ll stick to the well known ones accessible by tourist tracks, well, you obviously don’t know us very well. No spoilers yet in terms of details, but you can also expect some unique “passages”. Be ready to get wet, but that should go without saying!
Coasteering: During the course of the event, you may encounter some epic coastal travel sections. This could mean a thrilling scramble (or full on traverse) timed to crashing waves that threaten to pull you from your perch, short swims around headlands, vertical bashes through near impenetrable coastal scrub, or as we experienced when vetting, a mix of all three. You’ll either think it’s the highlight of the course, or the one of the crazier things you’ve ever done, depending on your skill, water confidence, and more importantly the tide, surf, and daylight. End up there at the wrong time and it might just be the most daunting stage you’ve ever done or a good excuse for another 2 hour nap while you wait for the tide to drop!
Paddling: We’ll utilize packrafts again for the paddle sections there are some big paddling sections on the menu–a mix of rivers and dramatic coastline. Mild whitewater (Class II or below) will be encountered, and ocean paddling will replace the lakes from last year. Conditions on the ocean could be rowdy. Conditions getting back to land almost certainly will be. Don’t worry though–surfing a double packraft is a skill not many have mastered, so we expect carnage, even from the more experienced teams. That being said–boat confidence and wet re-entry skill are good things to develop between now and March–you never know when a rogue wave is going to see you bobbing in the drink a km or more from the nearest land!
Challenging Navigation: We mentioned this before, but seriously, we can't say this enough: navigation is gonna be HUGE in the Catlins. Strong map and compass game, plus smart decisions and route choices are gonna be essential. As with last year, we expect a few smaller “orienteering” specific legs embedded along the journey.
Things that will be missing in MAG2:
We build courses to the terrain and we have not been able to find a really good reason to include several of the “disciplines” or experiences that were racer favorites in the first edition. It is with a heavy heart that we announce the following will feature less prominently in MAG 2:
Intensive Packraft Trekking: While you’ll still carry packrafts on at least one leg, you won’t be trekking your boats up and over multiple mountain ranges in sub-freezing conditions. Booo!
Intensive Hike-a-Bike: You won’t be able to ride everything if you tackle the PRO course, guaranteed. That being said any bike-whacking will be much shorter than last year. Note that we didn’t say less challenging necessarily…you’ll have to stay tuned for more details.
Ropes: It is unlikely there will be a ropes/technical climbing section in this year’s event, although there will likely be areas where you’ll wish there was a rope.
Pain and suffering: Seriously. We’ve cracked the code and have learned how to design a course that is both challenging and incredibly pleasant to complete. You will not experience any discomfort during the entire race.
Bad Weather: As part of the above, we’ve had to learn how to manipulate large scale weather systems and will be applying this knowledge via cloud seeding and microclimate energy subvention techniques to ensure sunshine, rainbows, full moons, and starry skies for the duration of the event.
Host City: GORE
We are pleased to announce that the Race HQ for The Magnificent Race 2026 is going to be in Gore! It’s known as the Hokonui Moonshine Capital, the Country Music Capital of NZ and the Brown Trout Capital of the World. Located in the heart of Southland, Gore is about an hour from Invercargill and an hour and a half from Queenstown.
Gore combines a rural charm with necessary amenities. With a population of just over 8000, it’s an order of magnitude bigger than last year’s host location of Lumsden. You’ll find multiple grocery stores, restaurants, coffee shops, a couple of sports shops, and plenty of accommodation options. In other words, it’s big enough to launch a proper multi-day expedition from!
Accommodation options:
Croydon Lodge (www.croydonlodge.co.nz) are offering discounted rooms to teams that book direct via phone or email and quote ‘MAGNIficent’.
Other accommodation options are the Riverlea Motel and Oakleigh Motel, the Charlton Motel, and the Esplanade Motels. There are also camping options. We recommend doing your own research on tripadvisor or a similar site before booking. And as always, many teams may find Airbnb or Holiday home rental options.
When to book:
Pre-race ‘festivities’ will commence on Saturday, Feb. 28th 2026 from relatively early, so at a minimum we recommend you arrive and stay overnight on Friday the 27th. Local teams may get away with rocking up on the Saturday, but there’s a lot that goes into prepping for a 5-6 day unsupported expedition race, so don’t cut it too fine! The course will close on Saturday, March 7th, with the awards that evening. Teams will be able to plan homeward travel from the 8th.
More details on exact registration times and schedule will be included in subsequent chats.
Other Things to Mention
Team Details:
We are soooo keen to start learning about you–what your team name is going to be, who exactly you’ll be adventuring with, and of course we’re dying to know your medical conditions, etc etc. We’re setting up a portal where you’ll be able to feed us the info we need at your own pace. It didn’t quite get finished prior to this chat going to press, so you’ll receive a separate email with details about how to access it once it’s ready (we anticipate by late Aug/early Sep).
Keep an eye out!
Leave No Trace: Protecting Our Awesome Canvas!
The Magnificent Race gets to run through some of NZ's most precious and untouched places. And with that privilege comes a HUGE responsibility. Our whole environmental ethos is built on the core principles of Leave No Trace (LNT), and we hold ourselves (and you!) accountable to adhere to this. This means:
Respect for Native Flora and Fauna: Don't mess with the wildlife, and NEVER take anything from nature.
Minimize Impact: We’ll be doing the heavy lifting here - designing a course that allows us to explore this magnificent area, while keeping the transition areas in more developed and less sensitive terrain.
Proper Waste Management: "Pack it in, pack it out." All your trash, even food scraps, need to come with you until you can ditch it properly.
Adherence to Local Guidelines: If we give you specific conservation rules for any sensitive areas, you will need to follow them. No exceptions.
Unsupported: The race will be unsupported as usual, allowing us to mitigate the impact that we do create as much as possible.
The Catlins (and NZ) is our canvas, and it's up to all of us to make sure it stays as wild and pristine as possible. So please, check out the full Leave No Trace principles if you don’t know them and promise to be magnificent environmental stewards throughout the race. Deal?
Sponsors
We’ve lined up some magnificent sponsors this year, and have announced (or will be announcing) these partnerships on our socials, and doing pre-event give-aways of sponsor swag leading up to the event, with all registered (and paid up) teams going into the monthly draws. So far we’ve given away Map Boards, Rab vouchers, Back Country Cuisine meal packs and 4 Hour Fuel, and still to come are That’s it (epic skin protection), Bee Fast, Aden Gear, Altitude Brewing, and Blue Duck Packrafts.
Speaking of Blue Duck, as our official packrafting sponsor, they’re offering participants of the MAGNIficent an opportunity to grab arguably the best Adventure Racing packrafts in the world at a discount! So if you’re in the market for a double, or keen to upgrade your existing boat, hop over to their website and use the discount code mag26 before 30 September and receive 10% off a Rere or Taurua packraft.
Bee Fast is also offering a 15% discount code to racers through their website. Just enter MAG15 at checkout. Thanks Sponsors! You’re awesome! (Yeah, we know, ‘magnificent’ could have worked there too…)
We’re also excited to announce that we have received support from the Clutha Development Fund (which will help ensure another year of epic event coverage), and the Gore District Council.
Adventure Racing World Series
The MAGNIFICENT is one of the World Qualifier Races for the Adventure Racing World Series, with the winning team securing a free entry into the 2026 World Championships hosted by Raid in France. Teams will also accrue points toward the ARWS rankings. As such - if you’ve got the time, familiarize yourself with the ARWS rules of competition and standard Mandatory gear list (which may have a few additions and omissions specifically for the MAGNIficent event).
In the meantime, we encourage you to start or amp up your physical training. Focus on endurance, strength, and your navigation skills. The Catlins are going to demand your A-game!
Dates & What's Next!
Our next newsletter, "Chat 2," is slated for Oct/Nov in the Kiwi spring and will offer more specific information including a more detailed look at the mandatory gear list, some initial training tips, a few more sneak peaks at the course, as well as updated logistical info. Stay tuned.
Money Talks
Second payments are due at the end of August. On September 1st registered teams will need to have paid $3000 of the $5000 total event cost to be considered current. On this date the ‘early’ pricing option will end and subsequently entering teams and non-current teams will be charged a nominal extra amount of $100/month–i.e. Teams entering in Sept. will owe $5100, in Oct $5200. We don’t like the carrot and stick mentality of early bird, regular, late entry fee deadlines, but do need to encourage folks not to wait until the last minute…hence the rather small stick (and therefore carrot). If you or your team have extenuating circumstances, just get in touch–we’re happy to discuss options.
Free agents
Know someone keen to race that doesn’t have a team? Pass along this link for them to give us some details.
Lose a team member somewhere along the way? Get in touch and we’ll give you any options we have based on our list of free agents!
In Closing
The countdown to The Magnificent Race 2026 has officially started! We can't wait to see all of you in Gore and begin our journey into the heart of the Catlins. Link up with your teammates, share your training journeys, and stay tuned to our social media for all the latest updates, inspiration, and magnificent giveaways. If you haven’t followed on FB or IG, here are the links to join!. FB or IG
Happy Training,
The Magnificent Race Team
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