Long-standing relay up and running at weekend

Forty teams are expected to wend their way around the picturesque Queen Charlotte Drive when the country’s oldest road relay takes place on Saturday.

The Queen Charlotte Relay is a five-person relay race starting at the Bluebridge Ferry Terminal yard in Picton and finishing in Havelock, outside the Havelock Hotel.

It is thought to be the oldest road relay held in New Zealand. The first relay was staged in September 1982 and has been competed for annually, except for 2020 and 2021 when it was cancelled because of the Covid 19 pandemic and 2022 when it was called off due to road safety concerns.

The relay was for runners only until 2002 when, due to popular demand, a social walkers grade was introduced.

A popular recent innovation is the Business House Challenge, with event organiser Alistair Savage suggesting that “as much as there a couple of high achieving teams, that are running like the wind, the vast majority of participants are social runners”.

“We are seeing a lot of business house teams these days, especially with the wineries and the vineyards … they seem to have this rivalry amongst themselves which has been pretty cool.

“We also have mixed gender, mixed age and family teams which add their own flavour to the event.”

Alastair described the road relay as “a bit of a rarity these days”.

“Our relay is one of New Zealand’s last remaining road relays, certainly one of the longer-running ones. Our traffic management plan is in place … in one or two spots the road gets a bit narrow, down to a single lane, but we have clearance to go through there and we only do that when we are confident it is very safe to do so.”

The event is divided into several grade – open men, veteran men (35 plus), open women, veteran women (35 plus), junior men or women (19 and under), social walkers (including mixed teams), business house challenge teams (race within a race). Competitors must be aged 14 or over on race day.

Entries are widespread, with regular participants coming from Nelson, Christchurch and Wellington to stretch their legs and savour a Sounds experience.

Leg one (5.1km) runs from Picton to Wedge Point, leg two (8.6km) from Wedge Point to Momorangi, leg three (8.1km) from Momorangi to Linkwater, leg four (6.2km) from Linkwater to Moenui and the final leg (6.65km) from Moenui to Havelock.

With leg one ending at Wedge Point, where there is no parking available, second leg runners will be ferried to the changeover point by bus, with leg one runners being bussed through to Momorangi after they have finished.

Entries for the 41st event are now open, but close at midnight on Thursday, September 18.

The relay starts at 10am on Saturday.

Main supporters are the Havelock Gastro Pub, Blenheim Pak ‘n Save, Bluebridge, The Spectacle, Mitchell Sports and Pub Charity.