He is perhaps the greatest to ever play the game, with a rugby CV to put all others to shame. But Richie McCaw's life now is very different to when he was captain of the All Blacks.
Whereas he was once the man leading New Zealand to back-to-back World Cup wins and a host of other honours in between, McCaw now works as a helicopter pilot and has found a new passion in competitive adventure racing. It is a remarkable change of pace for one of rugby's true legends.
Starting in 2016, McCaw's passion for adventure racing and extreme sports has seen him take part in the brutal GODZone on numerous occasions. That is an annual, multi-day, non-stop, expedition-style adventure race held in New Zealand where competitors work in teams to trek vast distances. The event is the largest expedition-length adventure race in the world and widely regarded as the best. Last year, McCaw and his team finished second, completing the gruelling 666km journey in six days. To demonstrate how tough these races can be, McCaw's iSPORT teammates were heli-evacuated off the GODZone course in the Fiordland National Park with a team member affected by ill health. Regardless, adventure racing has proved one way to ensure he doesn't miss rugby after hanging up his boots in 2015.
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"I think I would have missed the game more had I not got into something that puts me on edge," he told The Good, The Bad and The Rugby Podcast this year. "When you're standing there looking at the opposition, you know it's going to be a tough old battle. The racing stuff, particularly the multi-day stuff, you go through some pretty dark patches where you're not sure if you're going to make it to the end. Not knowing what's ahead and whether you're good enough, I love that side of the challenge."
As well as extreme sports, McCaw is also a pilot with Christchurch Helicopters, the premium aviation company in Canterbury, New Zealand. The former back-rower learned to fly helicopters with Terry Murdoch, the CEO at Christchurch Helicopters, after seeking a new challenge. Upon retiring from rugby, Richie was offered a position with the company and is now one of the chief pilots and has taken on more responsibility at management level.
One of his career highlights was working to assist the community of Kaikoura in the 2016 earthquakes. McCaw worked tirelessly alongside his colleagues, transporting supplies, people, resources and first aid equipment after all the roads in and out of the township had been destroyed. "We got asked to ferry some urban search and rescue guys up first thing, so a couple of helicopters went up," McCaw previously told TracPlus. "I took the fire crew up just to make sure everyone was OK in the houses and the roads that were stuck there."
He was also a part of the team which helped fight the Canterbury Christmas Day fire in 2017, when more than 20 fire trucks and five helicopters were required to battle the flames. The blaze burned through around 100 hectares of paddocks in 31°C.
"It’s great to be in the position where I can truly help people," he said. "That has been one of the most satisfying things about my transition from rugby to piloting. We do a bit of everything — one day you can be flying around the mountains and showing off Canterbury's treasures, and the next you could be helping on a fire. That is what makes this business so special — no one day is the same which keeps you really excited."
It's all a far cry from McCaw's rugby career, during which he broke records as part of a dominant New Zealand team. His tally of 148 Test caps was a record until Alun Wyn Jones broke it in the autumn of 2020, while his 110 Test caps as captain of the All Blacks remains a first. He is part of an exclusive group of players to have won two World Cups, being the only skipper to lift the Webb Ellis Cup twice. As well as a number of achievements with the Crusaders, he was also awarded the Order of New Zealand, the highest honour in New Zealand's royal honours system which is only bestowed to 20 living people.
However, despite all he achieved in rugby, it appears he doesn't exactly miss it, with all his new pursuits. He has also become a father in recent years, with wife Gemma giving birth to first daughter Charlotte in December 2018 and a second daughter Grace in May 2021.
He told Stuff in 2019: "I always said, 'what am I going to miss from not playing rugby?' It's the challenge but also the learning. I think if you haven't got something you are trying to get to or be better at, then you are just going to plateau and you're just going to turn up and it's going to be the same old. Whereas if you've got something you really want to figure out so that you're not on a plateau, then you are going to have a purpose to get out of bed each day. That's certainly something with the flying you get, the adventure racing you get. There's a real learning every day, every time you do something... you're not the finished article. And that's what life is all about in my eyes... being a parent, you are learning every day."
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