SkyCity Auckland’s Sky Tower is a feat of modern architecture and engineering that stands 328 meters and welcomed crowds of tourists looking to take in an amazing view of the city or dine at the revolving restaurant.
Not everyone goes there for leisure though, as the structure’s 51 flights of stairs with 1103 steps are the battleground where the SkyCity Sky Tower Challenge takes place.
This athletic contest involves getting to the top as fast as you can with 25 kilograms of gear on your back, with a BG4 closed-circuit breathing mask strapped to your face.
Members of Waihi Operation’s Mines Rescue Team and the Macraes Emergency Response Team took up this gruelling race against over 900 firefighters from across the country and successfully raised over $1.3 million for Leukaemia and Blood Cancer New Zealand.
The annual event takes on worthy causes to supply worthy causes with much-needed cash from its sponsors and pre-event fundraising activities.
2022 saw the Mines Rescue Team from Waihi take first place for teams of six to nine, as well as raising over Z$35,000 in sponsorships. The Macraes team took second place in the 10-plus team members category and generated $30,001 in sponsored donations.
Shay Perkinson from the Waihi team advised that the fastest climbers reach the tower’s summit in close to ten minutes, but that speed is not the ultimate objective.
“To be in Mines Rescue you have to be fit, and while we will always challenge each other to do our best, for us it’s not about being fastest, it’s about getting the team to the top, and raising money for a really worthwhile cause,” explained.
“Everybody knows somebody or knows somebody who knows somebody, who has cancer. This is our chance to give back,” he added.
Jed Moriarty, one of the fastest recorded climbers, agreed with Perkinson, saying that the team is “standing on the shoulders of the community”.
“We can train and do the climb on the day, but we succeed because the community gets behind us. We have a small group of major sponsors who are always incredibly generous, but a lot of the funds raised come in small amounts from our communities in Waihi and at Macraes. We really couldn’t do this without them behind us,” he shared.
