Lake Wanaka is in a stunning area of New Zealand and the Breca SwimRun organization held their second event there last weekend - in both a long course and short course format. For those who wanted to have the ultimate challenge and go long that meant 45.5km of running and 8.5km of swimming. The shorter event meant 16km of running and 3.5km of swimming and this year most teams flocked to that offering. According to race director Ben de Rivaz, many long course athletes who raced the 2017 event decided this year to try out the new Breca Bay of Islands SwimRun on April 15 instead. 62 teams total started in Wanaka and Ben de Rivaz is pleased with the signs of the growth in New Zealand.

The leading team of Jeff McGrath and Merv Hunger are all business during one of the 18 transitions of the long course. This Kiwi crew also did this race in 2017 and clearly have learned quite a bit from that experience.

These shoe flotation devices from NU Complements were spotted on a team before the race. But the team who had them on their shoes did however still wear pull buoys.

The views here on the South Island are incredible, but there is work to be done. So head down and swim, swim and swim.

Volunteers and exit flags help for sure, and here the leading team is headed towards the next segment.

Aussies David Wenham and Angus Rutherford almost ready for the next run. They eventually finished 4th in this race.

The chance of getting kicked by a competitor in these races is pretty small and diminishes as the race goes on.

Andrew Kerr and Matt Drake apparently came all the way from the UK to compete here, and this clearly is not a vacation.

There is always time to check the watches as Kiwis Benjamin Eitelberg and Kris Milne demonstrate.

Jeff McGrath and Merv Hunger running on a ridge with no other competitor in sight. At the end they had 11 minutes on the closest competition.

A bit of bush whacking does a body good, and it does not seem to slow David Wenham and Angus Rutherford down.

Alone with nature.

A bag for shoes is rarely a good idea, and to makes things worse for Kiwis Ben Reid and Dan Wallace, the dry bag Ben Reid carried along for the longer swims leaked and became a great drag. Don't be like Ben. :-)

The Brit/Kiwi team of James Haslam and Hilary Totty checking out the offerings at this aid station. In the end they were the top mixed team and the 6th team overall.

The field in the Sprint race was quite large and early on it was all together.

But in most SwimRun races the field spreads out fast.

And up, up, up we go.

Happy faces everywhere. Aussies Pete Orchard and Anna Barnes on the way to second place in the mixed division in the Sprint race.

Aussies Ben Wolstencroft and Dave Provan were chasing the leading long course team all day but in the end had to settle for second place.