Attention, Kiwis: your unsupported land speed record just got shattered by a couple of upstart Ozzies.
Tom and Maddie of The Adventure Gene, set a blistering new fastest known time (FKT) on Te Araroa — New Zealand’s backbone of trails at 3,000 kilometers north-to-south.
The old unsupported FKT: 69 days, 20 hours, by Tim Wright in December 2022. Tom and Maddie’s benchmark: 54 days, 14 hours. according to their Instagram.
If the record stands on verification from FKT.com, the hikers will have hacked well over two weeks off the record. For the time being, how they did it remains a mystery. Tom and Maddie had not made any further information available to ExplorersWeb as of this writing (including their last names).
Scorching pace
FKT lists no team category, supported or unsupported, for Te Araroa. But their pell-mell pace is closer to the overall record than to Wright’s unsupported mark. The overall (supported) FKT belongs to George Henderson at 49 days, 14 hours, 27 minutes.
The team stuck to a fairly rudimentary social media routine throughout the trip, which began on New Year’s Day at Cape Reinga. Updates included simple analytics on distance traveled and hours elapsed, plus anecdotes about Maddie’s animal greetings, and a couple of modest Q&A sessions.
As late as Feb. 4, they were roughly on pace to match the FKT at 1,134 km. But they started to gather steam from there. On day 35, they reached Wellington, the southern terminus of New Zealand’s North Island, at the 1,800 km marker. That put them ahead of Wright’s pace, in a position they would not relinquish.
Whether or not you think you can break Tom and Maddie’s record, consider putting Te Araroa on your bucket list. The tour of every latitudinal inch of Middle Earth promises ridgeline trails, encounters with wildlife and livestock alike, the requisite Kiwi scenery — and even some paddling to break up any repetition.
