From there it should have been easy. It was familiar territory traversed dozens of times in ridge-soaring flights from Paraparaumu. And then it started raining again. And if there's one thing a glider can't abide, it's rain. The droplets rob the slender wings of efficiency and their capacity to climb with the air currents rapidly diminishes.
Visibility also falls.
It severely reduces your performance. I thought this could be it, landing at Levin. The 486km journey had taken 5hrs 30 min. This is a normal race distance for the world championships, but this was abnormal because this was point to point, and the races are around multiple points and return. It was exciting.