Throng

With passports and maps at the ready, eleven teams are setting out on the race of their lives, travelling over 30,000 miles, and five continents in 23 days, in the new series of TV2’s action adventure show, The Amazing Race.

Starting from the world famous Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, site of the 1932 and 1984 Olympics, the 13th season of The Amazing Race will feature a variety of firsts - including teams travelling to a real-life water world where its inhabitants live upon a floating city and visiting Cambodia and Kazakhstan - and is guaranteed to be the swiftest and toughest race yet.

Executive producer Bertram van Munster has been watching from the side lines for years and says that teams get very tired and cranky. "This is good. It's like a Formula One race, pedal to the metal. You don't stop for pizza."

Van Munster laughs off suggestions that the teams could have any idea of what they are in for no matter how hard they research past races. "If people are aware of the show and think they know how to do it, that's good for us, because they don't know how to do it" van Munster says. "From the moment they get on that first plane, they will be saying, 'Oh! Whoa!'"

Series host, New Zealander Phil Keoghan, agrees with van Munster, and predicts the race will see new lows and highs, marking a unique experience for the competing teams.

"Every single person who has been on The Amazing Race, will acknowledge, that somehow it has enhanced their life. That even if they win the million dollars, the experience could not be bought by a million dollars. It's a once in a lifetime experience. It's ordinary people doing extraordinary things."

This year, the cast features couples in various stages of their lives - married beekeepers who have been together for years, a married but separated couple looking to rebuild their marriage, a newly dating couple still getting to know each other and best friends Andrew and Dan, who are comic book aficionados and describe the Race as "the ultimate game on the biggest game board you can imagine."

Don't miss this returning favourite, which also features teams competing in Auckland in upcoming episodes.

Photo: The Amazing Race teams.

Sunday 19 April, 7.30pmon TV2