Please note - as of 5th September, we are still waiting to get the last few issues ironed out with our new Eventdirector powered website. We apologise for the delay and appreciate your patience however it will be worth the wait as the site will have no-fuss, online entries and much more. We are trying to ensure that there are no glitches in the system before going live.

Everyone who has entered in the last three years (that we have a correct email address for) and those who have sent in queries will receive an email when the site is up and running. Hopefully this will be within the next few days.
 

Saturday 23th - Monday 25th October 2010

The Twizel Hard Labour Weekend events are held every Labour Weekend in the beautiful high country and around the canals of the upper Waitaki power scheme near Twizel. In previous years the weekends events included the Pyramid Run, a mountain bike race called the Totara Peaks Gutbuster and at times either a kayak race on the canals and Lake Ruataniwha or a road bike race around the canals.

Three years ago the mountain bike race shifted to the wonderful new 44 km Dusky Trail created by the Department of Conservation and as a result of the demise of the kayak and bike races, 2009 saw the creation of a new road bike race, the Canal Caper, a 60 km, 2 lap circuit of the canals. The 3 events - the Pyramid Run, the Canal Caper and the Dusky Trail now make up the Twizel Hard Labour Weekend events over the 3 days of the holiday weekend. All 3 events start from the same place at Ben Ohau Station on Glen Lyon Road, 6 km west of Twizel township.

The weekend is not just about providing some really good events for people to participate in, it is also about raising funds for youth sports clubs and community groups in Twizel. These groups help run the events by providing marshals and first aiders, helping with registrations and provision of food. In return the organising committee donates proceeds from your entry fees to these groups for purchase of equipment and subsidising travel. In 2009, thanks to your participation we were able to provide $16,000 to 4 sports groups (the Junior Rugby Club, Netball Club, Snow Club and Rowing club) and Twizel St. John.

This could not happen without the support of all our wonderful sponsors who help in many ways, particularly providing all the excellent prizes and food and drink for competitors to have after the events. Please support these generous individuals and businesses. For a full list, go to the sponsors page.

Equally the event could not happen without heaps of other people who give their time, expertise or permission to use their facilities or land. Our sincere thanks go to these wonderful people and organisations. 

While there will be prizes for all the age categories, we try to keep most of our prizes as spot prizes so that all competitors have a chance of taking something home. One of our biggest spot prizes is reserved for competitors who are full on hard labourers - that is they have entered all three events during the weekend. So there is an incentive to those of you who were considering whether to give all of them a go - do it!!

Local landscape photographer Donna Falconer will be on duty at all events during the weekend and will be displaying photos of participants at the start/finish area and placing them on her website (www.mackenziemagic.net.nz) for people to look at. You may purchase them from her from that website.

Results are available here