Scooter ride boosts cancer research funds
Battling winds, rain and wet onesies, a group of five mates took on a nine-hour scooter ride from Christchurch to Hokitika.
Kent Osborne, Peter O’Neale, Timm Livingston, Michael Silvester and Craig Wood spent a gruelling Saturday on 50cc scooters to raise money for the Cancer Society.
They first heard of the Tranz Alpine Scooter Safari when they read an article about the event.
The safari has been running since 2009 and, on May 19, around 250 people made the journey between the two South Island centres on scooters travelling at just 50 kilometres an hour.
‘‘At the time, we saw [the article], we were actually grieving over my mate’s dad passing away suddenly from cancer,’’ Osborne said. The group decided it had to take part. They gathered their scooters – some needed repairs, and one was only finished off hours before the guys were due to depart on the ferry for the South Island.
Starting from Christchurch’s Mike Pero Motorsport Park on Saturday morning, the men joined around 250 other scooter riders prepping for their trip.
‘‘There was a festival atmosphere going on. There were people dressed up left, right and centre,’’ Osborne said.
‘‘It was so cool and it really put a lump in your throat to see all the people out there.’’
The ride was broken up into several legs to give people an opportunity to stretch their legs and refuel their scooters.
But partway along, everyone began to feel the burden of the ride.
Silvester got motion sickness, some scooters struggled with the hills and on top of that, the temperature had dropped dramatically.
‘‘It started to get really mentally challenging towards the last third of the trip.’’
They finally pulled into Hokitika to the cheers of locals at 6pm – nine hours after they set off.
The group wore their onesies the entire way – Osborne said they wore them because while cancer was extremely serious, they didn’t need to be serious about it.
The five men raised more than $5000 for the Cancer Society and collectively, Scooter Safari participants raised $322,000 and counting. Fundraising is ongoing at everydayhero.com.