The dual to save an island

A legacy in the making

Mark ‘Rigor’ Richardson meets Motutapu

A wee preamble… there came a point in time, I can’t remember exactly when it was, that after having started my business, Total Sport (in 2000), it became clear that it needed to be bigger than me. And by that I mean I wanted people to love what we do, and why we do it, and very, very importantly not to attach this business to me, which is invariably what happens to businesses in the early days.

I was really hell bent on that, that mindset enabled me to remove myself from constantly being on the tools, and provided the opportunity to get my head out of the trenches and to get clear about what it is I wanted to see Total Sport achieve and do. And that, as it turns out, is quite simply to make people happy.

Our platform in which to do that is to put on participation-based sport events in stunning natural locations, allowing people to escape the daily grind - to run, walk and ride with other like-minded people. Our Why… to Connect, Share and Inspire through Adventure.

So the business became about scouring the land to find stunning and attractive locations in which to create events. Once we found those locations then we built the events around them, understanding that one of the key drivers for our people was to take them to beautiful places.

And like so many great things, this next part of the story came about by chance, and a good dose of luck. I was told someone from some place called the Motutapu Restoration Trust had rung and left a message. Someone wanted to chat about doing something on an island called Motutapu. I followed that call up as I was immediately attracted to what I remembered as being a pretty stunning place.

This was in 2007. And while it was certainly no walk in the park to get this event to the start line in 2009, quite the opposite in fact (they say good things are worth fighting for, and for great things sometimes there’s a hell of a scrap!), let’s fast forward to 2018, where we are heading towards the 10th anniversary of the jewel in the Total Sport event portfolio; the Partners Life DUAL Motutapu Rangitoto Traverse.

Known to many simply as the DUAL, this event is unique, it happens on an island in Auckland’s Hauraki Gulf for starters, and each March offers people the opportunity to hop on a ferry and take part in an amazing off-road event, where you can run, walk ride your mountain-bike (the only day in the year that you can actually ride a bike on the island in fact) or even do a triathlon, by yourself, or with your mates.

The DUAL was formed around the establishment and nurturing of an amazing relationship with our charity partners, the Motutapu Restoration Trust (MRT). It’s a real, fair dinkum relationship, they can’t do it without us, and we certainly can’t do it without them.

Part of our collective vision was to create this event to not only profile Motutapu as an incredible place to play, but also to create a steady income stream for the MRT enabling them to further their work around planting thousands (and thousands) of native trees, and ultimately reintroducing endangered species, such as Kiwi and Takahe to the island, which they continue to do.

For years I’ve wanted to tell the DUAL story. The story of a very special place, the story around the complexity and beauty of what is a truly unique event, the story of an event that has generated over $400,000 for the MRT to allow them to forge on and do great things, and perhaps mostly the story of how good people and great partnerships can make amazing things happen.

We’ve taken a leap of faith and have bitten the bullet, and have committed to a major production, which we are dying to share with you. Over the next 5 weeks, as we lead up the 10th anniversary Partners Life DUAL event, we’ll release a weekly 3-4 minute video, presented by Mark “Rigor’ Richardson, which will lay the foundation and tell the story of an event that is saving an island.

Following the event there will be a 30 minute free-to-air show produced, which will air in April.

So please, consider taking 3-4 minutes from your busy day, enjoy the beauty of a magical place, knowing that there are still lots of good, positive things going on in this world.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheDual/videos/10155876219500325/

YouTube: https://youtu.be/qgF-UpFgMK8