It was an early morning start for the first day of Hawthorn’s pre-season adventure training camp in New Zealand.
Setting off from Christchurch at 7.30am (5.30am Melbourne time), the two hour destination was the beautiful Peel Forest for a day of high-intensity hiking.
At base camp, players were divided into seven coloured teams that would be competing for points over the duration of the camp.
The day’s mission was to conquer the grand traverse of the Mount Peels; Little Mount Peel, Middle Mount Peel and the mighty Mount Peel.
The trek - covering over 20kms - included mountain summits between 1200m to 1700m above sea level.
The coloured teams trekked along unfamiliar terrain including bushland, broken rock, sand, mountain ridge lines and sharp bluffs.
The red team claimed hiking victory, arriving at camp seven hours after the hike’s commencement. The final team - the white team, after taking a wrong turn early, arrived at camp 11 hours after start.
All players were left exhausted but satisfied from their accomplishments, with the late-arriving white team receiving a standing ovation for finally making it home.
Young Hawk Taylor Duryea relished the challenge; “I thought Kokoda would be my greatest physical and mental challenge, but parts of the climb yesterday rivalled that.”
Duryea’s yellow team finished fourth with Captain Luke Hodge providing great motivation, while 2010 draftee Issac Smith often lead the way.
The team-bonding forged on the hike was strengthened with a night of camping, including cooking meals over a fire and setting up shelter using restricted materials.
Team points so far
Given for mental and physical challenges since landing in Christchurch on Thursday
Green: 20 points
Red: 15 points
Navy: 12 points
Yellow: 11 points
Grey: 11 points
Purple: 11 points
White: 4 points
Read the following Hawks in NZ reports:
Rougie is ready to go for the purple team.
The grey team: Stephen Gilham, Sam Grimley, Luke Breust, Max Bailey, Tom Murphy, Matt Suckling.
The red team: Riley Milne, Jordan Lewis, David Hale, Sam Mitchell, Will Sierakowski, Cyril Rioli.
The white team: Liam Shiels, Shane Savage, Clinton Young, Jack Mahony, Lance Franklin, Jason Burt, Rick Ladson.
The yellow team: Brad Sewell, Ben Stratton, Luke Hodge, Taylor Duryea, Josh Gibson, Isaac Smith.
The navy team: Brendan Whitecross, Xavier Ellis, Brent Renouf, Grant Birchall, Angus Litherland, Brent Guerra, Will Langford.
The purple team: Kyle Cheney, Jarryd Roughead, Luke Lowden, Michael Osborne, Paul Puopolo, Ryan Schoenmakers.
The black team (the coaches) front: Adam Simpson, Andrew Russell, Alastair Clarkson, Leon Cameron, Chris Fagan, Brendon Bolton, Peter Burge. Back: Lachlan Smith, David Flood, Ross Smith, Luke Boyd, Eddie Atkin, Andrew Lambert, Ric Sprake.
Ridge walking on day one.
The descent on day one.
