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Coming into the finish line at Mapua Beach in 79 hours total, team leader Bill Godsall said they were very happy to have held on to second position, having gotten lost for over three hours on the Mt. Owen trek.
A six hour gap was all that distanced the team from Team Star & Garter Nelson last night as members of Team Cromwell headed into the notorious Mt. Owner area. But as the weather deteriorated, that gap widened considerably.
Godsall, Jim Cotter, Murry Thomas and Nigel Alliot all agree that they should have dressed more warmly for the night trek, as they became cold and disorientated with the wet conditions. Dangerous holes and chasms forced them to stop and rethink their navigation as they struggled to find the Granity Hut checkpoint in the darkness.
Godsall said team members couldn't believe their luck when they arrived at Granity to discover that no other teams had beat them. As soon as they arrived, they immediately started running down the three-hour track to Courthouse Flat.
Team Icebreaker from the Westcoast and Otago areas is currently in 3rd place and is expected to cross the finish line early this evening with Arrow International Macpac running in 4th.
An action-packed day on the Buller river continued for the middle teams as they struggled to get onto the river before the 5pm deadline. All teams who didn't make the cut off will now do the shortened alternative course, to ensure that all competitors are off the field by Saturday.
— Margo Berryman, Southern Traverse
*Southern Traverse Photographers Include: Derek Paterson, Brian, Jurgen Ruoff, Barbara Newton, Rob Lile, Tony Di Zinno, Gareth Eyres, Alan Nelson, and Beyond City Limits.
EXPEDITION DISPATCHES 
