It's all go!

Good one, our major sponsor has just committed the funds we needed to make it all happen. Thanks to SPARC (Sport & Recreation New Zealand) we can now get into the planning proper. Our other major supporters at this time are Auckland Parafed who deserve a special thanks for having the faith to back us when it was still more of a dream than a reality. We welcome any support organisations and individuals can offer us. Areas of need are cycle equipment, cycle/outdoor clothing, and nutritional products. If you can help email Rob at rob.creagh@xtra.co.nz.

The rough plan at this stage is: a 3 stage cycle tour of the North and South Islands. Stage 1. Auckland - Rotorua Stage 2. Palmerston North - Napier (likely to change) Stage 3. Christchurch - Oamaru. Our transport is a tandem recumbent handcrank/footcrank hybrid, made by Greenspeed of Australia. As far as we know there are only 2 of these babies in the world (maybe 3). The riders are Rob Creagh in the captain position (up front) and John McPeak in the stoker position (grunting it in the back). Managing this intrepid pair, and hopefully cycling part of the journey, is Karen Howlett.

To make things more interesting Rob is a tetriplegic, while John (the big showoff) is deaf and blind. For obvous reasons the decision has been made to put Rob up front with steering and braking duties, whereas John gets to holiday in the back with nothing to do but change gears and sporadically apply the emergency brake to either annoy Rob or prevent serious injury (more on that later). Karen has refused to have a physical disability and chooses instead to assume the role of authoritarian mother. May all the Gods protect us!

The objective of the journey? To promote the New Zealand Government's No Exceptions Strategy, which has as its Vision: "All people participating in the physical recreation and sport activities of their choice."

More later...