Driving force

Effervescent Coast to Coast race founder Robin Judkins has written a musical - fittingly, in a plethora of styles.

- MARK REVINGTON

On a late autumn afternoon, the sun sparkles on the Sumner surf on the coastline near Christchurch city. Robin Judkins, 73, has just finished taking me on a tour of his house. Based on a Scottish sea captain’s house, it has an amazing art collection, and an upstairs room with a stellar view of the coast.

Judkins settles in to explain why he has written, funded and is about to stage a rock musical in the Christchurch Town Hall. It seems a far cry from the hurly-burly of the annual Coast to Coast adventure race, which he founded back in the 80s, and for which he is probably best known.

The musical began as a couple of lines in a diary. Those two lines tantalised him, but once he got going about five years ago, Free Bus to God almost wrote itself.

“Without really knowing consciously what I was doing at the time, I started to write it. And then, when I got hooked on the idea, I set chairs up in the lounge for the characters. I originally had 13 chairs but I decided 13 was too many to have on stage, and too many in my lounge, so I whittled it down to nine – five cast members and four band members. No one has a name, just a description.”

Judkins made his name as the father of adventure racing in New Zealand. The Coast to Coast is an insanely tough multisport race from Kūmara Beach, on the west coast of Te Waipounamu South Island, to New Brighton, on the east coast (it finished in Sumner until a few years ago). It involves running, kayaking and cycling 243km, and is hailed as one of the world’s great multisport events.