FFC Ride 4 KidsCan

Thank you!

29 March 2016

Final day;

Well what a way to wrap up the tour, riding from Wanaka to Queenstown

The Cardrona valley treated us well, and the weather was still and a little crisp so perfect for the bike. It took us 25ks to reach the Cadrona pub (no time for beer...), and then we had to single file and make our way to the summit of the Crown Range. Seemed straight forward. It was horrendous! The last 2 ks ramped up and I was in my lowest gear for a long time.

The downhill was more fun, but a lot of traffic on the Crown Road. We reached speeds of up to 80kms and my brakes were literally smoking.

We slipped into Arrowtown for refueling then back on the bikes and off to Coronet Peak, which took about 1 hour to summit and it was only fitting the hardest part would be the end, and it was a little wet but nothing unmanageable, to me it was a perfect finish.

We had a celebration at the top before turning our sights on the hotel. Time to get off the mountain, so a gentle spin to Queenstown, rest up, pick up some thank you pressies then off to the skyline for a celebration dinner.

At the dinner there was plenty of stories about the week, but the best thing was looking around the room and seeing what all these wonderful people had achieved as a collective. We reached $150,000! This will go directly into helping fund kids in need. It was also announced that we would get to put 4 schools on the programme, so that will be over 800 kids, they are going to get food everyday, they will receive shoes, rain coats, and toothbrushes etc. and as I said early on it doesn't seem like a lot but it is,

What you have all done via sponsoring me means that we get these kids to the start line, so that means they are in the game each morning. It give them opportunity.

Thank you all so so much for your support!!!

Cheers

Michael

Share this update

0 comments | Login to leave a comment

One day to go!

22 March 2016

Hi All

We have now completed 500km of the tour. The scenery is pretty incredible down here and you see so much more from a bike than a motor car.

Conditions to date have been favourable.

Day 1 - CHCH to Geraldine was a cracker. 178km, mainly uphill. The ride out of the Rakaia gorge was intense with a full on headwind.

Day 2 - Geraldine to Tekapo 90km with some strong cross winds. Traffic was pretty tough and the support crew did a great job of keeping us safe. It was great to soak in the Tekapo hot springs at the end of the ride. We passed a few lone riders. One guy was heading south to Taupo...didn't have the heart to tell home it's was the wrong island let alone the wrong lake!

Day 3 - Tekapo to Omarama 90km. Then we did an add on down to the Benmore Dam which is about 30 km. This was a really quick run and we averaged 40km/h.

Day 4 - Omarama to Wanaka. We had some steep climbing today, as we went over the Lindis Pass. Then a quick run into Wanaka where we went straight into the lake to cool off.

Tomorrow is a big day of climbing. We will travel to Queenstown, but we are going to have a crack at Coronet Peak on the way. This will mean 2,000 metres of climbing....

To date we have raised 140k for Kidscan!!!!

Thanks so much for all your support! It's going to make a real difference to the lives of kids in need.

Thanks heaps for everyone's support. It has really helped be get through some of the tough stages of the tour. Our final day is a ride from Wanaka to Queenstown.