Bob McLachlan PHOTO: Supplied

CAT PATTISON

As a baby, Bob McLachlan had big hands and correspondingly big feet. You could say he was born to grip a paddle, and as an adult his Hobbit-sized hooves gave him stability in the mountains and the ability to pedal a bike along at speed.

Paddling some form of boat formed the cornerstone of Bob’s life as he grew up kayaking, before embarking on a career as a professional raft guide. Living the endless summer dream he worked on some of the world’s most beautiful rivers. It was around this time he earned himself the nickname Big Water Bob.

Bob also rafted competitively, winning New Zealand, Australasian and world championship titles in teams. His down-time was spent on pioneering kayak missions descending remote and difficult stretches of water. He later took up waka ama (outrigger canoe paddling) and pursued it to world championship level. He holds numerous national waka ama titles.

Bob has also worked as a guide for trekking, mountain biking, sea kayaking and canyoning companies internationally and in New Zealand over the past 27 years.

A move from Motueka to Wanaka in 2008 meant his other loves - mountain running and biking - could be integrated into his active life. It was here Bob began adventure racing. The vast talent pool meant there was always an abundance of strong athletes heading somewhere overseas to race.

Highlights included winning the China-based Wenzhou Outdoor Challenge with Team NZ Adventure in 2014, racing with top Kiwi athletes Braden Currie, Dougal Allan and Jess Simson.

In 2015, Bob also enjoyed racing with Simone Maier, Marcel Hagener and Hamish Fleming in China’s Baise Outdoor Quest, where they placed second.

Bob also developed a love of rogaining (a navigational checkpoint-finding race) and has teamed up successfully with five-time adventure racing world champion Nathan Fa’avae. He also took his navigational skills to the snow and won the National Cross Country Ski Rogaining Championships. A little more time on cross country skis saw Bob claim two national age group titles.

Conditioned to sleepless nights courtesy of his two young children, in 2013 Bob decided to compete in New Zealand’s gruelling, multi-day, non-stop Godzone Adventure Race. It started in Mount Cook and the teams of four mountaineered, hiked, mountain biked, canoed and kayaked their way over a 500km course to finish in Queenstown. During their five days of racing, Bob’s team operated on a total of about six hours sleep and finished fifth out of 50 teams.

The team returned the following year as Torpedo 7 Adventure Race team and finished second behind Adventure Racing World Championship-winning Team Seagate.

Bob continued to race with Torpedo 7 Adventure Race team in the Godzone event the following two years, finishing third (but unranked due to missing a checkpoint in 2015) and then third in 2016.

Aged 44, Bob decided to have a crack at the World Multisport Championships Coast to Coast Longest Day. He achieved second overall and convincingly won the veteran category.

Heading overseas later that year, Bob raced with United States-based team Adventure Medical Kits in China’s X-Trail adventure race, where they won silver.

A change in focus for the first part of 2017 saw Bob captain and navigate a team of three novices – including his partner Cat Pattison – to second place in the Godzone Adventure Pursuit Race.

Last year, Bob was called up to the dream team of adventure racing, joining defending World Championship-winning Team Seagate (Chris Forne, Stu Lynch and Joanna Williams) to compete in China’s X-Trail race in June. They won comfortably then set their sights on racing the Cowboy Tough World Adventure Racing Championships in Wyoming, United States in August 2017 - which they also won.

Bob’s adventure racing retirement plans were put on hold when he was asked to race with Richie McCaw in the GODZone adventure race in March this year.

The PWC-backed team for the Fiordland race also includes experienced Wanaka adventure racer Sarah Fairmaid and New Zealand Rugby Players’ Association boss Rob Nichol.

Bob after the recent Red Bull Defiance event. PHOTO: Graeme Murray/Red Bull NZ

The team split up into twos to do the Red Bull Defiance race in Wanaka, in January. Bob and Richie were stoked to win their sport category in the gruelling two-day multisport race and finished an impressive sixth overall.

They banded together as a foursome for the ARC 24-hour race in the Coromandel in February - battling their way through the mud and rain to come away with a win.

Not one to rest on his laurels, Bob and his team are racing this weekend as team PWC #7 (Richie McCaw’s rugby playing number) in the GODZone adventure race in Fiordland.