The Weekly(ish) Update - Issue 0014

The Weekly(ish) Update
13th May 2010
Issue Fourteen

6237km..

That’s how far I rode on my bike around New Zealand, and what an adventure it turned out to be. I met so many wonderful people, visited so many beautiful places, and achieved my goal of rasing awareness for all New Zealands childrens charities many time over.

I knew before I left that it was not going to be easy, infact until I had done the first week I was unsure if I would be able to complete it, I mean how many people decide that they are going to ride a push bike around an entire country and prepare everything but themselves for the adventure, I literally learnt as I went, and in hindsight think it became even more of an adventure because of it.

Day one was probably the hardest, it had the steepest learning curve of any of the other days, mostly because I learnt as I went, and as I went what I learnt was how hard it was going to be. I had over 50kg’s in the trailer, I carried everything I thought I might need in a trailer designed to carry between 20 – 30kgs.. and surprisingly the trailer did really well for the first few weeks, then things started to go wrong, and repears became bigger, more frequently, and more time consuming.

I left Picton about 7.30am and it was as I was pushing my bike up the road out of Picton that I realised how much of a challenge it was going to be, because everytime the road went slightly uphill I had to get off my bike and push the entire weight myself because I was not fit enough to ride up hills, and that was only the start, the road that leads out of Picton was no where near as steep as other roads about to be encountered, and that became even more of a challenge once I got to the mountain range that separated me from the east coast.

I never gave up though, if it was too hard to ride I got off and pushed, I was determined to complete my journey and I took each day as a separate challenge. Initially my goals were simple, finish the distance I planned to do, and try and remain happy doing it. Quite a simple theory for what was a very physical challenge, and I learnt a lot of lessons quickly because there was no other way to complete the next day if I did not learn from the day I was doing.

For example on day three I think it was I ran out of water, I was only carrying two 500ml bottles that I planned to refill when I could, not being a water drinker or heavy exerciser before this journey I had no idea how important that clear liquid actually was, so I initially assumed carrying those two little bottles would be enough.

Well the day I ran out it was about 30 degrees in the shade, the peak of summer and I had a reasonable head wind to contend with, so I didn’t feel myself burn as the wind cooled me nicely, yet my energy levels slowly but surely fell, they fell to the point where after 5 hours without water I looked, and felt, like I was about to pass out. I was very lucky not to collapse, and even luckier to have made it to the shop to get a drink before I did, but I learnt my lesson, and I never ran out of water like that again. On some days I would drink up to 10 litres of water a day, pee very little, but sweat a lot.

I carried all my food for the South Island with me, porridge and soup. Each morning I would have 2 - 3 sachets of porridge, which half filled the pot I cooked it in, and for lunch I would drink 2 – 3 cups of soup, which kept me going through the day, and mostly at night I was often too tired to eat, so porridge and soup became my main diet as I had very little money to buy anything else.

The trouble with this was 6 weeks of food weighs a lot, and I think it was on day two when I bumped into a guy who had cycled around 20+ countries, looking very professional in all his colourful cycling gear with two small bags attached to his bike, who told me he bought his food each day so he didn’t have to carry all the weight, that I began to make plans for a few changes in the North Island.

I had various problems, like the trailer was over loaded, I slept on the side of the road in a tent with no matress, my shoes gave me blisters, and my bum became incredibly sore spending up to 10 hours each day riding, but none of these caused me to stop any longer than was required to fix the problem, or realise that I just had to keep going to complete that particular day, and that is probably what I am the most proud of, the fact I never gave up.

When I first thought about doing this trip I knew it would be hard, and I guess a few days were much harder than others, the learning curve was incredibly steep to begin with, and physically each day presented different challenges, but at no point did I fully realise how much I would enjoy it, how much what I was doing would come to mean to me, because even though I set out to raise awareness for New Zealand childrens charities, I guess there was always a part of me that doubted my own ability to do that to any great degree. I guess I kind of thought that I would get on my bike, ride around New Zealand, had out a few flyers, take a couple of photos, and no one would really care.

Sure when I was in Auckland they didn’t want to know about me, and I never got much reaction in Wellington, or when I first started the journey on the east coast of the South Island, but everywhere else I went the response was well beyond what I expected. I learnt that what I was doing was important, and not something that just anyone would do, I learnt that I was making a difference every where I went, and at no point was this more evident than when I went through Whangarei.

A group of war vetrans had set up a memorial in the city, 420 crosses in a park, each cross had a laminated a4 piece of paper on it that had a heap of information about one vetran who had been killed in a war, and the 420 crosses represented each of the 420 vetrans from Whangarei who had been kiiled. Family visited their realitives cross and added information to it, the vetrans their had a caravan and invited people to know who these people were, and I swear it is one of the most moving memorials I have ever seen anywhere.

I was talking to a few of the vetrans there, and one of them made me realise how important my journey was when he said “that I was not only raising awareness for New Zealand childrens charities, but doing something for the future of New Zealand children”. Which coming from someone who had fought for New Zealand in a war, mean a lot, and I was humbled by the experience.

During my journey I was lucky enough to get myself written about in maybe 20 local newspapers, most of which had a photo as well, and also I did maybe a dozen interviews on radio stations across the country, including one of my favourite interviews at Nagti Porou Radio in Ruatoria, where a young guy tied his horse up to the post outside the window of the radio station as we were doing the interview, so he could get milk and bread from the shop. I met a range of incredible people, people who all inspired me to continue, some of whom offered me meals, beds, help, prayers, and in one instance an asparigus roll halfway up a mountain I had been pushing my bike for a couple of hours. There were also things I did not like so much, like all those people who actually tried to kill me using their car or truck by ‘squeezing’ past me where I had no room to move, or moved into me instead of away from me as they went past, the few people who laughed at me when I was struggling, or the fact that my jouney had to end and there was no way for me to do anymore than what I had done.

Which I guess is why came up with the idea to try and create an auction for my favourite charity Canteen using some of the photos I took whilst I was doing my ‘Cycle for Life’, and so far it hass not progressed further than an idea, but what I am thinking of doing is allowing Canteen to choose my 10 best photos, print them out on a3 art paper so they are of stunning quality, get them framed using 40,000 year old kauri so the frames make them even more desirable, and auction them on trade me, with all the money going to Canteen.

What do you think?

I would like to do something more, something to end my adventure before I start Custom Vision Photography officially next month after I move to Hamilton next week. I would like a way to celebrate the fact that I rode my bike, and completed my goal, of raising awareness for all New Zealand childrens charities by cycling around Aotearoa…

…6237km.

Till soon.. Stay safe.. Be You!!!

.K