Mag 3, Chat #2 (Sep 2026)
Course Peek, Logistics & Getting Pumped!
Kia ora and welcome to Racer Chat #2 for MAGNIficent 3: The Backyard! We are stoked to have you locked in for what is shaping up to be a fast and furious and fun expedition.
Before we dive into the juicy details of what we've cooked up on the course map, we want to offer a quick apology for taking so long between chats! We haven’t been slack back here behind the scenes though, it's been a ridiculously busy year since we finished Mag 2!
We’ve fully shifted FEAR Society to FEAR Trust, a registered charitable trust (harder than it sounds),
Put on multiple races both in NZ (the WAR series and the NZ Secondary Schools AR champs) and abroad (Rainier Raid, Lapine Loop, and the upcoming American National Championships)
Done a few races ourselves (taking top honors - barely - at the Raid the Rockies in Canada)
And we are busy training for Expedition India in mid-November!
Nevertheless, we’ve managed to get boots on the ground right through the MAG3 course, have secured our concession and 90% of our permissions, updated our safety plan for the coming event, and passed our safety audit. Whew. That’s most of the not-so-fun stuff done I reckon.
Time to settle up, before the real work begins!
Now for a quick bit of housekeeping: We’ll be sending out emails to registered teams with payment details for the new FEAR trust, and any amounts outstanding. We know, we know, we’re terrible with the money stuff.
Maybe because it’s not our first priority and we know it’ll all come together in the end. Somehow we’ve always managed to put on a big, challenging event that is hopefully good value. That being said, we’re getting down to the wire, so please do flick through your entry fee as soon as is feasible. International teams will be sent an individual WISE link.
Here are the payment details for future reference:
Fiordland Endurance and Adventure Racing Trust
02-0965-0101705-003
Now... onto the good stuff.
The Course: Welcome to Te Anau & Andy’s Backyard
The Town:
As mentioned in chat #1, for the third edition of MAG we’ll be hosting you in Te Anau—the gateway to Fiordland and Andy’s backyard!
It’s an awesome place, but can also be very busy during the summer season, so if you have not booked in yet - don’t wait. There are lots of Airbnb, holiday parks and hotel accommodations for a variety of budgets - but the longer you wait the less choice you’ll have.
The town also has two grocery stores, several outdoor stores, and a bike shop - so if you forget something chances are you can find it here.
The terrain around here is vast and wild. We’ve been staring at the course map (and out across the lake) and we can tell you this: it’s going to be a wonderful journey with lots of diversity.
The Course:
After the past several months of exploring - here’s a reminder of the highlights waiting for you out on the course:
Whitewater Packrafting: Moving water, stunning river corridors, and technical splashy goodness. Get those paddle strokes dialed in. The harder whitewater will be optional sections (PRO points), but regardless of your choices you’ll be doing a lot of paddling on moving water!
High Mountain Trekking: You’ll be heading above bush line on multiple sections of the course. Expect exposed ridgelines, sweeping views, alpine tarns, and rugged high-country travel with some semi-technical terrain at times.
Rewarding Route Choices: Several sections of the course will provide opportunities for significant route choice through difficult and varied terrain. This won’t be a ‘follow the leader’ type of race and we expect to see teams opting for significantly different routes on multiple stages. A team’s decisions on high-level navigation and line-picking will play a big part in their success.
Tough, Dynamic Navigation: In addition to route choices through big terrain, there will also be a few areas that require good micro-nav, particularly for teams chasing all of the PRO points. It won’t be as intensive last last year, but you’ll still need to bring your A-game with map and compass if you want to not get lost. And yeah - there will be some bush!
Challenging MTB Legs: Yeah, Fiordland has a lot to offer but isn’t known for it’s mountain biking. But we’ve found plenty of ways to keep things interesting (as we do)--and you’ll face some challenging bike legs with plenty of climbing, descending, and maybe even a bit of hike a biking (though far less than either MAG 1 or MAG 2). There will also be bike legs where a team’s bike fitness plays a significant role, so keep up the training!
Surprises Along the Way: What’s a MAGNIficent race without a bit of spice? We’ve got a surprise or two in store for teams as well. Some will come early, some will come late. Some you’ll love, some you’ll hate (at least initially). What do you think, should we make the whole route book rhyme like that? Surely…
Design Updates:
We’ve added and subtracted a few things since our initial course recce - things that will add to the flow, competitiveness, and finish-ability of the event for a wide range of athletes.
After all - not everyone likes to sign up for a big iconic expedition race only to find out that the course is too big, poorly vetted, and/or all-but impossible to complete as designed.
So as always, the dirtbag course testers at the MAGNIficent have been tweaking and testing, and as a result - we’ve created a number of unique elements and made a few changes from what was communicated in Chat #1.
PRO points:
There will be a number of “pressure relief valves” throughout the course - where a more challenged team can gain back some time (and maybe avoid a bit of suffering) to move back into the mix. These will come in the form of optional PRO points which are worth fewer points than normal control points (CPs).
Top teams in pursuit of a podium spot will certainly be chasing all of these PRO points, while a slower team, one newer to expedition racing, or one who’s faced some setbacks will have multiple opportunities to shorten stages or avoid a few of the bigger climbs by skipping PRO points.
This will bring a strategic element in for many mid-pack teams looking to be competitive, as our course design aims to have around ⅓ of the field able to clear the full course by obtaining every available control.
Most of the longer and more technical stages will have some PRO points, but all teams will still get great whitewater, bush nav, real mountain travel with route choice, unique biking elements, and of course world class views.
DarkZones:
We’ll be instituting two types of darkzones.
The first will be traditional, and will only affect the very top teams (and maybe no one).
The second will affect everyone equally no matter where they are on the course. Essentially it is a “mandatory stop” - not at a certain time, but for a certain amount of time. This will only happen on one specific night when many teams are likely to be on the water. It is created so that no team will be able to “break the race” by making it off the river and gaining an 8 hour lead while others are forced to stop moving.
We will provide more info on this dynamic in the full racer information pre race, but it’ll both improve river safety, encourage all teams to paddle rather than walk alongside the river, and make the late race more exciting by ensuring teams have a good 4 hour kip when they most need it.
Neither DZ will be late in the race - so teams can maximize and strategize those final days of racing and sleep (or lack-there-of) will certainly come into play.
Fast(er) and Light(er):
While there will be some big stages in the race, we’ve done our best to reduce the weight you’ll have to carry on them as much as possible. While all teams–regardless of whether they’re going ‘PRO’ or not–will be humping their packrafts for a wee while, we’ve minimized these distances as much as we can, and will transport your packrafts for you when possible.
In this regard MAG 3 will be more similar to MAG 2 as opposed to MAG 1 which started off with a rain-soaked hump up over Mt. Dick with big loads. There also won’t be much if any bike-rafting this year, and bike carrying/pushing will be reduced compared to previous editions. There will be heaps more elevation gain than MAG 2 though so your legs will thank you (us?) for the reduced weight on your back!
No Ropes:
In recent course testing - we’ve decided that the planned rope section this year was a bit too contrived. The decision to make you go out a bit of the way just to give our media a chance to shoot you doing some cool roped climbing was tempting. But in the end, the diversion took away from the flow and feel of things, pushed the overall length of the race a bit, and was the one section of the course that was not really weatherproof to a big rain.
As racers ourselves it would be disappointing to have a competitive race come down to who made it to a small climbing section before the rain started, and we imagine you’d feel the same way.
But there is a silver lining. We’ve been able to add something else really amazing that we’d have skipped if the climbing were involved. Can’t say more yet, but it will be equally exciting for our media team to capture. And speaking of media and prizes…
Big Stakes & World-Class Media
Look what’s up for grabs this year!
Free Entry to the 2027 AR World Championships in Croatia:
The overall winning team in the ARWS 4 coed category secures a golden ticket to test themselves against the best on the planet in Croatia, including fellow Kiwi team Forever Forests, who secured their own golden ticket after winning the 2026 ARWS Oceania Championship. Speaking of Oceania Champs....
Free Entry to the 2027 ARWS Oceania Championships:
To support the future of the sport, the top Youth Team (we’ve got a record 4 youth teams signed up, with a 5th pending!) will walk away with a free entry to the 2027 Oceania Champs, which will take place in New Zealand next Nov/Dec, and which will in turn offer a free entry for the 2028 ARWS World Championships.
World-Class Media Crew: Our legendary media crew will be out in force. In the bush, on the rivers, and high on the ridges capturing your suffering and glory so your family and fans back home can follow along. The team will be anchored by Media director Darren Steinbach and world renowned photographer Gulliermo Gutierrez.
Key Event Schedule
Here is the rundown of key dates based out of Te Anau:
Dec 4–5: Arrive in Te Anau / Host City (Get settled, build bikes, relax).
Dec 6: Check-in Day, Gear Checks, Prologue & Official Pre-Race Briefing.
Dec 7–12: MAGNIficent 3 Race Live (500 km of unsupported pure adventure)!
Dec 12 (6:00 PM): Course Closes & After-Party / Awards Ceremony.
Dec 13: Onward travel & recovery day.
So keep training (or get training if you haven't been!), practice your packraft transitions, train those legs for the vertical gain above the bush, and get ready for a magnificent week in our backyard.
We’ll be dropping more specific gear guidelines and final logistics notes soon, but in general expect to follow the MAG 3 Mandatory Gear List. Below are the main things to note.
Packrafts will be required
WW helmets will be required, we've linked to our favorite options in the gear list.
River/water knives are required.
wetsuit or drysuit for the long packraft trek
bike boxes will not be required
Bins/bags will be accepted and paddle bags can be any size that works.
Only 1 space blanket per team, as you are already carrying bivys or sleeping bags and a shelter.
Other stuff
Young Guns:
I (Andy) am fresh back from directing the NZ Secondary Schools Adventure Racing Championships which FEAR Trust hosted up in Twizel. It’s been a clear reminder of how incredibly capable NZ’s young racers are – I’d been worried leading into the event that I’d overdone things and that no teams would clear the 12 hour course. I needn’t have been.
Top teams finished in just over 10 hours, beating my ‘fastest time’ estimates on the final tricky rogain by 20%, even after a grueling day. So needless to say, we’re pretty stoked to have 4 (or maybe 5) full youth teams attending MAG 3 this year.
While two of these teams are no strangers to expedition racing (both FEAR Youth and MAGNIficenet Youth will be on the start line), two are brand new to expedition racing. We still have one discounted youth spot available if you want to give any young teams a nudge...
Regardless, it will really be a first of its kind event that sees so many full squads of young racers challenging more experienced teams in the main event. We can’t wait to see how they do.
Sustainability:
Part of our DNA at MAG is doing everything with an eye towards creating the most sustainable event we can.
For MAG 1 we partnered with a Dunedin based native reforestation outfit to plant native seedlings on over four hectares of land. For Mag 2 we partnered with Ekos Forever Forests and Forest Management group, who connected us with Kiaora Downs Station and helped us facilitate and fund the planting of 600 trees to help reestablish wetland margin forest on the site.
We’re still not sure what MAG 3’s contribution will be, but we’re committed to making sure there is one, in addition to keeping the event’s environmental footprint as low as we can possibly make it.
Right, I think that’s about it for Chat #2!
Ask questions if you got ‘em, and happy training.
Ngā mihi,
Jason & Andy Magness Race Directors, The MAGNIficent
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