Nathan Fa'avae: Adventurer At Heart

by Nathan Fa'avae

New Zealander Nathan Fa’avae is a world champion adventure racer, considered by many to be the best in the history of the sport. In Adventurer at Heart he shares his life story, and provides a compelling and unique insight into this remarkable pursuit. It takes a Tour de France cyclist about 90 hours of cycling, spread over three weeks with rest days, to complete the race. An adventure race, however, can take up to 160 hours of non-stop racing over as much as six days, with virtually no sleep or rest. To excel at this sport requires an elite level of skill in mountain running, mountain biking, kayaking, rafting and navigation but, above all, an almost superhuman capacity to endure suffering and pain. Part-Samoan, Nathan was raised in Nelson, and it was as a wayward adolescent that he discovered outdoor adventure. Since then he has never looked back, and has been a full-time adventurer working as an outdoor educator, the owner of multiple adventure-based businesses, and a professional athlete. Nathan’s career has taken him all over the world, and he has raced in the deserts of Africa, Mexico and the Emirates, the plains of Tibet and China, and the peaks and valleys of Nepal, Ecuador, Brazil, Patagonia, Russia, the European Alps, and New Zealand. Adventurer at Heart is a story of courage and perseverance, and of overcoming tremendous challenges. Nathan Fa’avae is an outstanding New Zealander, and this book is an inspiring account of what it takes to become a world champion.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography

445 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 9, 2015

Reviews

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent, absorbing read for anyone even mildly curious about adventure racing, or endurance sport in general. It's not simply a recount of his races - you can google his race reports if you have the desire - but rather an insight into how he became to be a multiple world champion, a legend in the sport, and certainly an inspiration to many. Humorous, and told with typical Nathan bluntness.
I didn't want the book to end, to be frank.

Now excuse me, I have to get outside and climb some hills!

[Shaun Barnett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adventure racing is backcountry travel at another level. Over three to five days, teams of four competitors travel hundreds of kilometres, virtually without rest, in a combination of outdoor pursuits that can span almost the whole gamut.

Take the first Southern Traverse race in 1999. Competitors began at Pohara Beach in Golden Bay, sea kayaked the Abel Tasman coastline, then mountain biked over Takaka Hill and up the Cobb Valley, ran over the Tablelands and Mt Arthur, into the Ellis Basin, where they biked to St Arnaud, ran over Robert Ridge, down to the Travers Valley and up to the St Arnaud Range to the Rainbow skifield. From there, they biked back to St Arnaud, rafted down the Buller River, ran over Mt Owen and finished at the Wangapeka road end. A team comprising Nathan Fa’avae, Kathy Lynch, Steve Gurney and Aaron Prince won the event in 72 hours.

Nor surprisingly, New Zealanders have excelled at the sport, and Fa’avae is considered to have been among the world’s elite, if not the best ever. Born in Nelson to a Pakeha Mum and Samoan Dad, Nathan had a somewhat wayward youth, with smoking, drinking, drugs and stealing threatening to lead him astray. It may be an exaggeration to say the outdoors saved him, but it certainly made him.

He gave up the stimulants, and found far more stimulation pushing himself to the limits in the outdoors. By his mid-teens, he was into all sort of outdoor pursuits, including tramping and fly-fishing. Once, as an inexperienced lad, he almost drowned in the Karamea River while trying to cross the extremely difficult Garbaldi rapid by himself. In his first Coast-to-Coast event, aged 19, he came 11th in the solo two-day event, and was the fastest individual in the mountain run over Goat Pass. Unlike many other contestants, he hadn’t run any of the course before, and didn’t know about taking food. En route, veteran Doug Lomax gave him some barely sugars.

An early adopter of mountain bikes, he excelled at cross-country riding, and honed paddling skills through being employed as rafting and sea kayak guide. For a while, he part-owned a sea kayaking business at Abel Tasman, but then sold it and became an Outward Bound instructor, with his wife Jodie. He was often in charge of the ‘catalyst’ students, many of whom were at-risk youth.

Fa’avae writes with candidness and often humour, and the book covers his life pretty evenly. In biographies, he writes, ‘the normal, ordinary things that happen in life were the bits I enjoyed most, and which I also want to share.’

Adventure racing requires not only an almost super-human level of fitness, but skills in wide range of disciplines, an ability to work as a team, and excellent navigation skills – which may be taxed to their limit while travelling in darkness. Competitors often push themselves beyond the point of exhaustion, to where they hallucinate. Fa’avae once bemused his companions by pointing out a non-existent red lawn mower in the middle of the backcountry.

Teammates often expect huge things of each other. On one occasion, Fa’avae described one team member who pushed himself to the point of vomiting. ‘I said to him, “Do you reckon you could keep walking while you’re throwing up – it would save us a bit more time.” Looking up with vomit dribbling down his chin, disbelief written on his face, he could see I was serious and got back on his feet.’

Why you might put yourself through that is a good question. Fame, glory and prize money might be strong incentives, but for Fa’avae other rewards are just as strong. ‘I remember high on the Mount Arthur ridge close to midnight there were expansive views over Tasman Bay and the city lights of Nelson and other towns shimmering softly. The moon was up, it was a clear, calm night, and we were wandering around in the hills. At that moment I discovered I didn’t want to be anywhere else, doing anything else. It was a perfect adventure and I felt perfectly alive.’

Adventure racing took Fa’avae all over the world, across deserts, up mountains, down canyons, and through rainforests, in all sorts of places including Soth America, Tibet, Nepal, the European Alps, Russia, Mexico, Africa and of course New Zealand.

Adventurer at Heart is a fast-paced, often humorous read about one of the legends of the adventure racing. I enjoyed it, even if I did feel damn lazy at the end of it.

[Jax]

I first heard about nathan fa'avae in 2020 during the early days of the pandemic and out of curiosity I sat down to watch the first episode of eco challenge on amazon prime. I quickly found myself addicted to it and watched every episode available cheering on my fellow countryman and was absolutely thrilled when they won which really was another feather in NZs cap. The ending of eco challenge left me wanting more and after googling team nz found nathan's book which I sat down eagerly to read.
Nathan as most NZers are, is raw and unfiltered and sometimes uncomfortably honest about his life and achievements to date. But his no shite pragmatic approach to life has created the undisputed world champion he has become.
This book is a must read for anyone looking for some inspiration to either get into the sport or just looking to change some things in their life.
Its the no nonsense guide to get people off their backsides and back into living.

[Laura Oliver · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. I'd never even heard of adventure racing until I watched "The World's Toughest Race". I'm so glad I saw it and that it led me to read this. It was unexpectedly captivating considering I don't care much about sports and could never be described as outdoorsy, but Nathan Fa'avae is a surprisingly decent writer (surprising in that it's not his profession) with an interesting life and personality, and he really kept me engaged the whole time. It's even inspired me to go on a few little hikes around my home. I have to assume he keeps journals, because that's a lot of detail to remember about a lot of events!

[Sanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! As most reviewers I found out about Nathan through the amazon eco challenge show and bought his book after finding it on his website.

I love his sense of humour and his directness, it resonates well with me.
I’m just amazed with the persistence and willingness to suffer.. the mental strength made more of an impression on me than the physical feats and I mean, those were amazing.. but to never say I give up.. is what makes him as strong as he is I reckon.

Super inspiring read, I even looked on the Outward Bound website myself to maybe give that a go as a reset. A see what I can do, to learn to push myself further.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

I always love a good biography! This is a great insight into the life of one of New Zealand's greatest adventure racers. A book thats educational, emotional at times and overall inspiring. Highly recommend for anyone thats interested in pushing their limits and exploring the great outdoors.

[Paulette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Provoking me to be my best self.

I am 51 year old female. I am not disciplined in anything I do. This book has provoked me in changing how I live and think. I am provoked to be a better me.

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

So fantastic, inspiring and really fun to read

[Tony Hastie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Adventurer at heart is such an apt title. Yes, Nathan is a multiple world adventure racing champion and it was great hearing about the races hes been in but what really struck me is how he also brings that sense of adventure to his family life. In the day and age of ipads and the like its fantastic to see young kids out on a multi day canyoning trip, or hiking, or kayaking or mtn biking. Its something that Id like to emulate with the new arrival in my own family as soon as she can walk, bike, paddle! I had better get training...

[Sharron · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this autobiography. Unlike most books written by sportspeople Fa'avae appears to have written this one himself without help from a journalist ghost writer. His straightforward, blunt, often humourous style reflects his personality I suspect, (I've never met him so I'm guessing). I liked his honesty. The book is easy to read and his life journey to date is inspiring. Well worth reading if you have an interest in adventure racing or want some insights into how to live an engaging, meaningful life.

[Beyond · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book alot. I understood how a world champion athlete viewed things. Got a lot of learnings.

[Keen Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

For someone who starts out claiming to be humble and not comfortable in talking about himself it doesn’t take him long to get into the swing of it. His dedication and determination is obviously inspiring, many of the events he gets involved in are genuinely very dangerous, in some instances the odd competitor even loses their life, so pretty high stakes are involved. He has some sensible thoughts on nutrition and diet and also has some interesting views on life and his love of the great outdoors comes through on every page. He offers some valuable and constructive advice mentoring wayward youths, giving them the opportunity to experience what he did and give them the courage to effect positive change in their lives, insisting that they chose their playground play mates and play toys more carefully.

He seems to adopt quite a pro-active attitude with his own kids too ensuring he passes on his skills and experience, though at times in his bid to avoid them being over protected and risk averse he comes dangerously close to putting them in real danger a couple of times, which he admits to. His decision to go against professional advice and not take a support vessel when kayaking when leading a blind, young teenager across the Cook Strait is pretty reckless and irresponsible, far more skilled and experienced people have died in doing less dangerous activities. So without doubt at times his ego appears to triumph over the safety of others in his care. There is also a stubbornness that lapses into childish petulance, like the bizarre prank that backfired when he pretended to be inexperienced and useless during a serious trial and failed the entry into an adventure related job (His wife passed and was understandably raging at him for blowing their plans) or when he goes back to work early against medical advice after being diagnosed with a heart condition. Of course there is more than enough space for some commercial promotion not least when he manages to crowbar his own product into his story, which is amusing in its blatant crassness. Overall this was mostly OK, though often I thought it was a bit dull and flat if you are interested in a more well rounded biography from a fellow, contemporary Kiwi adventurer, might I recommend Lisa Tamati’s excellent “Running Hot”.