Medal awarded for marathon ride
It took a bit of convincing from his wife for Picton man Peter Bugler to accept a Queen’s Service Medal offered to him as part of the New Year honours list.
Mr Bugler received the medal for services to cycling tourism after managing tours for 40 groups between 1993 and 2012 for his Youth Hostel Association of New Zealand Geriatrix Cycle Touring Group.
The 74-year-old voluntarily organised cycling tours for hundreds of people, mostly aged between 60 and 80, around New Zealand and Australia since 1993 and retired from the project in 2012.
He was modest about the work but said his wife convinced him to accept the award because of the pride it would bring to his children and grandchildren.
‘‘I’m certainly embarrassed. I think I would rather it had not happened at all – I’d rather be anonymous than famous. To get by stealth, that might be my motto,’’ Mr Bugler said.
‘‘I’m chuffed that my friends think enough of me to put my name forward, but embarrassed just the same.
‘‘The medal will go nicely on my jacket on Anzac Day.’’
The cycling tour groups started after Mr Bugler was convinced by a group of friends to turn a motorcycle tour of Tasmania into a cycling tour, which took place in 1994.
Five riders and a support van driver took a month to circle the island.
‘‘I was a youngster when it started, at 55. The companionship and the challenge of a long-distance ride at an old age is appealing for a lot of people, but it gets harder the older you get. To be able to ride a bike for 70 kilometres a day, day after day, for a month, you’ve got to be reasonably fit.’’
He organised the first group while deputy chairman on the Youth Hostel Association national executive. The group gave members something they could do together and was based on a similar model used by YHA Australia, which organised bushwalks.
The group grew to more than 100 people spread between Invercargill and Kerikeri who set off in groups of nine with escort drivers along pre-determined routes in New Zealand and Australia twice a year. It has had more than 200 members.
Mr Bugler retired earlier this year and will be replaced by three people who will support the group from their financial, co-ordination and communication positions.
A former Picton deputy mayor, he was awarded the Rotary Paul Harris Fellowship Award in 2009, made a YHA New Zealand life member in 1996 and earned a YHA New Zealand certificate of merit in 1991.