'Tiny' Queenstown firefighter scales the heights
by Philip Chandler · Otago Daily Times Online NewsA Queenstown firey who likens her latest Firefighter Sky Tower Challenge to torture is at least comforted by breaking her fundraising record.
Involving fireys climbing the Auckland Sky Tower’s 1103 steps in full firefighter gear, the hugely-popular event’s also a massive fundraiser for Leukaemia and Blood Cancer New Zealand.
Queenstown brigade volunteer Tanya Stone, whose previous best result was 16 minutes 12 seconds and an 11th placing in her category, says her focus this time was “more on fundraising than beating myself up over performance”.
Over five challenges she’s now raised $12,833, but this year alone she raised almost $7k.
“There’s been some incredibly generous people out there this year, and I can’t thank them enough because leukaemia and blood cancer is something that is close to my heart.”
The 37-year-old says she doesn’t even want to know her time this year — spoiler alert, it was a still-respectable 21min 19sec.
“Unless you do it, it’s really hard to explain how tough it is.
“Everyone’s like, ‘you’re a seasoned pro, this must be easy’, and I’m like, ‘absolutely not’.
“I didn’t train as hard as I have in previous years and my body’s just not built for it — I’m tiny, I’m at a massive disadvantage.”
Wearing about 25kg of full kit including a cylinder and mask, Stone says “we started up and I got quite overwhelmed”.
“It took a while for my body to adjust, but just over halfway through the torture sets in.”
She’d like to say last Saturday’s Sky Tower Challenge was her last — “I really do” — however she might be tempted by the ‘firefighter of steel’ category where you wear a heavier cylinder, “just to tick it off”.
Meanwhile, the fastest local in last weekend’s event was airport firey Lee Winter in 12min 56sec.
The Frankton brigade’s Karl Argyle recorded 13:42, Queenstown’s Aoife Sheehan,15:16, and Frankton’s Tania Sedunary, 16:39.