RIDE OF THEIR LIVES

These two seventysomethings have been riding high, writes Linda Hall, taking 35 days to e-bike the length of NZ

JOHN DARNLEY’S MOTTO is “seize the day”. And that’s exactly what the Clive man and his wife Eileen Harris did when an invitation for an adventure arrived. The couple, who are both 74, went on an e-bike trip, based on the 3000km tour from Cape Reinga to the Bluff, except they did it in reverse, starting from Bluff on March 21, and finishing at Cape Reinga on April 27.

John and Eileen, along with seven others on the tour, also e-biked the length of Waiheke Island after catching a water taxi from Coromandel to Waiheke and from Waiheke to Auckland.

“We were 44 days on the road, 35 biking days, three rest days and six transit days. We stayed in 43 accommodations packing and unpacking each day,” John said.

“We had a ball — there were so many highlights,” Eileen said. “We have done a lot of e-biking overseas including Paris and London, but with the world closed off to us we were looking for something else to do.”

Eileen said they were the oldest on the trip — “not that it mattered” — and even though they were fit, no amount of training could prepare you for something like this.

“Some people think e-biking is easy. It is pedalassisted and some days we rode up to 130km. Everyone was sore for the first seven to 10 days but we knew we had to get up the next morning and push through it.”

Eileen said if she had to pick a highlight it would be Pipiriki to Blue Duck Station — The Bridge to Nowhere.

John kept a diary of the tour posting to Facebook when he had coverage. This is an abbreviated extract of his entry for the ride to The Bridge to Nowhere:

“We had a 5.30am start organising our day with breakfast and packing. We left the accommodation, with a morning frost carpet outside, by 6.45 and arrived at the jet boat by 8am. Great jet boat ride on the Whanganui River with its high sides covered in native bush.

“We rode through a forest of native trees on mountain bike tracks to the Bridge to Nowhere, and carried on to the summit. The last 16km after the summit was all downhill and a mix of challenging, difficult and hard! At many places we had to walk our bikes because it was slippery or rocky, with tight turns and steep grades. At one stage we came across a tree blocking the track — fortunately it was only a small tree, skinny & long, so we set about clearing the track and with a combined effort we did. There were incidents along the way — almost everyone of us fell over or lost something or grazed ourselves.”

Eileen says along the way there were seven swing bridges. “They were too narrow for our bikes so the men had to wheel them through on their back tyre. I couldn’t do it, the bikes are too heavy.”

John’s highlight was the ride from Queenstown to Wanaka.

From his diary: “An 8km ride with lovely weather in sunny Otago. Beautiful scenery with a blend of autumn tones made for an enjoyable ride. However, the ride was not without its challenges such as the extremely steep goat-like track ride up to Tobins Drop at an altitude of 669m. Starting by the Arrowtown car park the 2km track rises 270m and once at the top the views are magnificent. The ascending ride continued for a further 21km until we reached the Crown Range summit of 1100m. A sealed, steep and winding road, with plenty of traffic, that seemed to go on forever! From the summit it was essentially all downhill on a busy road. Will sleep well tonight!”

Eileen said everyone fell from their bike at some stage and things went wrong with the bikes.

“Eileen had a graceful fall when she hit a tree root,” John said.

They agreed that the trip was amazing. “We loved it. It was money well spent, a trip of a lifetime. But we have ticked it off our bucket list and don’t need to do it again,” Eileen said.

John agreed. “It was lots of fun. You get lost in the moment, see the country from a different perspective and make new friends. We had a great time.”

So what next for this intrepid couple? “When Covid-hit we were planning to go to Holland on a bike trip and would also like to go to Prague and Amsterdam. But I think we will let the world settle down a bit for now.””