The Macpac Motatapu Owners and Senior Management have been assessing the situation and working through multiple scenarios since the announcement by the Prime Minister at 9pm last night on the revision of Alert Levels throughout New Zealand. 

What is one of the biggest adventure races in New Zealand, the team had to make the incredibly disappointing decision to cancel the 2021 event. 

“Our competitors are our top priority and their health and wellbeing has been the number one factor in this decision,” the event statement says. 

“We realise that this decision will affect all our athletes who have put in countless hours training and appreciate and share their disappointment.

“We want to be transparent in the reasonings behind this decision, so our loyal fans can understand why we have had to make this hard call. 

“Earlier in the year we had investigated running our event with groups of 100 and it is not feasible across our four different courses and their convergence to make sure these groups do not mix. 

“We would need to remove all aid stations and this compromises athletes safety and thus our safety management system. 

“We have a responsibility to manage the safety of everyone out on our race course, including our medics, volunteers and staff, as well as competitors.”

Postponement to Sunday 7 March or till a later date is not financially viable, with some key operational services unable to be changed as well as weather considerations for later dates and the safety of people out in the backcountry. (Continue reading below).

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“Our longstanding COVID policy for cancellation at this point has been a 25% refund, but we have been working through the budgets and with our contractors and providers over the past hours to try and reduce costs,” the event statement says. 

“We are endeavouring to give back as much as we can to our participants. 

“We will be offering a 60% refund or a full transfer to 2022 event, which will be on the 5 March 2022. 

“We have incurred costs up to this point around staffing, consents and permits, registration fees, radio repeaters have already been helicopter deployed into the course, medals, accounting and legal fees, marketing, advertising and signage.

“Instructions will be sent to athletes in the coming days on how we will process the refunds and transfers so please bear with us as we work through those details. Below are the details around the Transfer and Refund policy.”

Transfer to 2022

• Entries are only transferable to the 2022 event.
• Transferred entries are not eligible for refunds. i.e. the cancellation policy for 2022 will not be available to transferred entries.  
• Free entries are not eligible for transferring.
• Date for the 2022 event is Saturday 5 March 2022.

60% Refund

• Refunds will be made via the method your entry was paid i.e. either credit card or internet banking.
• Refunds will be made within 20 working days of submission.

Transport will be refunded at 90% and any pre-bought photo packages will be refunded in full.

“We hope that our athletes from outside Auckland will still be able to visit our beautiful region and we will be posting our top tips and fun things to do in Lake Wānaka, Arrowtown and Queenstown on our social channels, to help people make the most of the coming weekend. 

“We ask everyone to please abide by the Guidelines the Government has set out for Alert Levels within your region. And remember to stay home if you are unwell, call Health Line and arrange to get tested. 

“We would like to thank all our supporters, partners, sponsors, volunteers, staff and most of all our athletes who have sent us such wonderful messages of positivity and support. We are really blown away by you all. 

“The two local owners, taking ownership in October 2020, put together a tight team of event professionals, who really care about creating a fun and safe event which thousands of people love and keep coming back to. 

“Although we are incredibly disappointed to have had to cancel we know it is the socially responsible thing to do and the only viable option for the event, but we want to assure you we are already working towards 2022 with passion and we will bring you a fantastic Macpac Motatapu 2022 on 5 March. 

“Thank you from Gemma Peskett, Craig Gallagher and the Macpac Motatapu Team.”