Journey of Hope Page 1: Cape Reinga on Day 1 to Coromandel on Day 9
These pages are archived from the original home pages.
Page entries run from the bottom.
Other Journey of Hope pages:
This page: Cape Reinga on Day 1 to Auckland on Day 8.
Coromandel on Day 9 to Eastbourne on Day 27.
Wellington on Day 28 to Franz Josef on Day 39.
Lake Paringa on Day 40 to Bluff on Day 54.
Day 9
2 December 2010
Auckland to Coromandel
See Daily Diary (Day 1 to Day 10)
Not to be outdone by D9910
Hi Francis
Can't let 9910 out do us.
Ollie & Xaver and a number of other cyclists arrived at Aotea Square and were met by Phil Goff, MP Nikki Kaye, an Auckland City Councillor and a number of Rotarians and you will find pics on www.photosport.co.nz click on their photo and the rest of the photos are displayed.
The media were advised and we will be following up.
Rob Crabtree now has disc with all the photos and we will distribute them accordingly
We then proceeded to Government House and another photo opportunity and afternoon tea.
My club St Johns then hosted Ollie & Xaver at breakfast, presented them with a cheque for $500.00 after which they set off for Coromandel.
They certainly made a great impression with everyone they met and are great ambassadors for Rotary.
Thanks.
John Cornaga
Photos from Aotea Square and Government House
See Daily Diary (Day 1 to Day 10)
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Takapuna's great day out for Polio
1 December 2010
The following messages have been received describing Journey of Hope activities in Takapuna
Hi All
Well the RC of Takapuna and Takapuna Primary managed to raise $441.10 in a couple of hours yesterday through bucket rattling and a gold coin collection. RC Takapuna is going to make it up to $500 by fining all those who couldn’t make the bucket rattling Or something like that.
What a great couple of young men! I know Ollie and Xaver made an impression on the Takapuna Primary kids and who knows it may inspire some of them to have a social conscience in their futures. Here are a couple of pics that I took.
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In the top one Ollie is showing the kids the map of their route on their incredibly apt shirts – what a great plug for End Polio and Rotary those shirts are! And the second is an album shot for the school. Pictured with the lads is PDG 9910 Merv Huxford, who has just managed to raise $96,000+ through a bike ride across the widest point of the North Island. He rode with the lads from Silverdale to Devonport.
Regards Felicity
Hi all -
this email is to let you know the results today regarding the Cycle Ride - Journey of Hope - End Polio / Polio Plus.
$84 is the amount of money donated by Takapuna Primary School Families
$357.10 was collected in Hurstmere Road
$441.10 is the total amount - didn't we do well.
As per Ken Linkhorn's and Merv Huxford's recommendations I will bank the money into the Rotary Club of Takapuna Charitable Trust account tomorrow (Thursday) and will then write a cheque from that account and post it to Chris Owen. That way our Club will receive the appropriate credits etc.
Felicity and Merv can I please leave it to one of you to let the two wonderful young men know the outcome.
Thank you all for your efforts today
Cheers
Marilyn
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Day 81 December 2010 Whangaparoa to Auckland |
A message from Merv Huxford - Rotarian extraordinaire
1 December 2010
Hi Francis.
Just got back to my office
You've just got to be proud of your nephew Oliver and Xaver.
What great guys and brilliant developing attitudes.
Enjoyed my time with them immensely. Make sure they tell you about:
1.the foreigners who even their translator had not heard of polio before
2.the guy who vividly described how his sister went from healthy to iron lung in less then 24 hours
I expect they will have caused an additional $1400 or so to be donated to PolioPlus in last 15 hours
Regards
Merv Huxford
District Governor 9910 2006/07
Rotary Foundation Chair District 9910
Asst Regional Rotary Foundation Co-ordinator Zone 7B
Health & Hunger Resource Co-ordinator Zone7B
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Day 730 November 2010 Warkworth to Whangaparoa See Daily Diary (Day 1 to Day 10) |
Orewa Rotary Club hosts Journey of Hope Riders
1 December 2010
The following message comes from the Rotary Club of Orewa
We had the boys at our club meeting last night where they spoke to us for about 5-10 minutes and answered a few questions.
A couple of outstanding young men.
The club has raised $115.50 for their ride. This will go to polio plus through our club account.
I have just come from Silverdale where they met Merv Huxford, Orewa Rotary member and Past District Governor 9910 who is riding with them to Takapuna.
Another fine and calm day for their ride. I hope the traffic is on good behaviour!!
Cheers
Stuart
President of the Orewa Rotary Club
Featuring in the news
30 November 2010
The news media is starting to take a keen interest in the exploits of Xaver and Oliver as they make their way down the North Island.
In Warkworth they were interviewed by local Mahurangi Matters reporter Nichole Ganley who took the photo below outside her office in Warkworth.
The extended article below, written by former Rotarian Les Watkins, appeared in Friday's edition of the Rodney Times.
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| Picture by Mahurangi Matters |
Click on image to read article |
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Day Six29 November 2010 Kamo to Warkworth See Daily Diary (Day 1 to Day 10) |
Napier Rotary Clubs chime in with plans to welcome Journey of Hope
29 November 2010
The following message was sent out by Ian Mayne, President RC Ahuriri
Evening Everyone,
When our two riders are due in town, the basic plan is to have two or three Rotary cyclists meet our intrepid cyclists at the first of the houses they come to when approaching Pan Pac. Our Rotarians escort them to the disused garage
(Shell) in Bayview where they will meet up with any other Rotarians who want to cycle into town with them. From the Shell garage everyone cycles along the Rotarian pathway to the Sound Shell.
We will ask the Mayor to meet them at the Sound Shell to welcome them to Napier. That night they can attend Greenmeadows meeting.
Next day is a rest day and perhaps that night attend Taradale meeting.
On departure from Napier if we can have some cyclists escort them to Havelock or Hastings where Rotarians there escort them out of town on the way to Waipakarau.
Can all presidents ask their members if they would like to escort Xavier and Oliver into Napier. If they cannot cycle meet at the sound shell to welcome them there. If we had 99 Rotarians with the cyclists and the Mayor I am sure it would be a good photo opportunity for the papers.
Rob, Sorry I do not have Neils e-mail address can you please forward this to him. If Neil can e-mail me I will include him in in future updates.
Xavier / Oliver Is there any thing you would like to do while you are here. We could take you for a tour of Napier / Hastings have lunch then go to the beach for the afternoon. Over to you
Angela is going to ask Barbara if she could meet the cyclist and liase with the papers.
Any suggestions or comments welcolme.
Regards
Ian Mayne
Day 4 and 5
Rest day in Paihia
Woke up to early morning sun over the bay. After watching the seagulls fight and the ducks checking if we had any food we made the 3km trek into town for breakfast. The staff were grumpy and pushy but the coffee was bottomless and it felt strange but good not to be cycling. We carried on to Waitangi to explore the Treaty grounds. Hours of wandering and perusing and imagining what must have taken place on this land and in these houses was finished off nicely with a beer in the garden. As usual it was great to take a break from the unrelenting afternoon sun!
On the way home Ollie jumped off the bridge with the local boys, who possibly didn't expect him to take up their invitation. We picked up some fish and veges for our BBQ dinner and mosied back around the rocks to the campground.
Not much sleep to be had as a group of travellers and locals made a fire right next to our tent and seemed to party all night. Negotiations with the rowdy bunch (which I did while wearing not much more than my underpants) were nearly successful but did result in a lot of awareness raising for PolioPlus and even a donation! Despite this we were grumpy in the morning from lack of sleep.
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Paihia to Whangarei
More sun! Today we had a high of 35 degrees and plenty of huge hills. Bodies are getting used to it though and muscles are springing up out of nowhere to take the strain.
We noted today that we have only been passed by one cyclist. There have been a couple going the other direction but we expected to see more fellow travellers. Admittedly these roads aren't great for cyclists but we have been pleasantly surprised by the behaviour of all but a few motorists.
We joined a gang of motorcyclists at a backwater pub for lunch. They sipped pints of beer while we nibbled our tiny toasted sandwiches at $4 each. We rolled into Kamo, Whangarei in the late afternoon to stay in the Kamo Hotel where Don Armitage has kindly allowed us to stay for free. We did a food-shop for our big cycling day tomorrow and found amazing 2-4-1 pizzas to finish off the day.
We've got loads of great images but we're waiting to we get to a broadband connection at Whangaparoa to download them.
Stats for the Day – 73.2 km covered and 882 meters of climb. Big day tomorrow with nearly 100km planned as we head for Wellsford.
Xaver & Oliver
Day Three
26 November 2010
We finished the day pitching our tent in a beautiful camping ground just outside Paihia. Tomorrow is our first rest day and after the experience of the last three days we're very glad we built it in to our programme.
The problem with training for something like this is that you don't load the bike up the way it is on the actual journey - tents, panniers, clothes, food etc. So you push your bike and yourself around and get lulled into believing you're fit and ready to go. But three days in our knees are telling us how foolish our confidence was. All that extra weight has to put pressure on some part of the body. Tomorrow will be blessed relief.
We also know we'll get used to it (or at least our knees will) because we're doing some easy distance early and taking our rest days.
Fewer kilometres today (only 57.58) although we were greeted this morning by a great big hill (climbed 746 metres in the day), which took a gruellling hour to climb. Today was also the hottest day so far and the combination of hill and heat resulted in sunglasses full of sweat at the top. We shook them off and pressed on to Kerikeri. We lingered a bit there, reading the paper and giving our knees a rest knowing that the afternoon cycle would be shorter. Our bodies are slowly adjusting to their new life in the saddle but it can be a painful adjustment at times.
We do wonder about our bike distance and height computer too. It seems to be out by about 5% on the short side compared with Googlemaps - very frustrating.
A conversation with a road worker from Moerewa ''sleeping rocks'' immediately endeared us to the region and our spirits were high as we rolled into the Bay of Islands. We have another beautiful campsite under a pohutukawa tree and this time right on the waterfront. Tomorrow we will walk back into Paihia and Waitangi and do some exploring by foot or perhaps by kayak.
No Rotarians today unfortunately but we look forward to catching up with some as we get closer to Auckland. We know they'll be looking out for us in Warkworth and also in Orewa.
Here's our pictures from today.
Xaver and Ollie
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Day Two
25 November 2010
We started quite early to try to beat the wind and ended up succeeding for most of the day though the wind did kick in again later in the afternoon.
It was also a much less hilly ride today with only 675 vertical metres being recorded on the bike computer.
The scenery of Ninety Mile Beach gave way to hilly farmland and coastal towns. Red-gold sand and ocean brilliant blue in the sun.
It was sad to see my Mum and Brett finally depart for home and leave us to our Journey. They’ve been great support and company at lunchtimes and at the end of the day.
We are on our own now, bringing a change in the mood - a greater feeling of adventure.
After a long and relatively flat ride of 77.95 km we reached the camp ground at Whangaroa where we found a lovely tree to pitch our tent under and a trampoline to work out the muscle strains of the day. Also looking forward to a shower and some Deep Heat for the knees.
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Unfortunately we didn’t meet up with any Rotarians today but most people we come across are very friendly and interested in what we’re doing. But the reaction we got from one chap was a bit strange.
Apparently he’d cycled through Afghanistan. He saw no polio and thinks there are bigger problems in the world people ought to worry about. However, not wanting to sound totally negative, he told us we should ring President Obama and get some of the money the US is spending on the war there for our cause. Unfortunately he didn’t have President Obama’s number so we had to give that suggestion a miss.
Tomorrow we head for Paihia via Kerikeri where we’re going to have lunch with the Rotary Club – we can smell it already. Then we have a rest day on Saturday at Paihia to make sure Xaver sees some of the jewels of our historical crown.
Sunday gets us to Whangarei and we really start to pack the Rotary activities in.
Best wishes to the Rotary Club of Feilding which is having its sausage sizzle in the main street on Saturday to raise funds for PolioPlus. If you’re passing through or a Feilding-ite please make sure to go and get a great BBQ sausage.
Oliver & Xaver
Reaching a wider audience
25 November 2010
Rotary Inter-District PR Committee member , John Bishop, writes a weekly blog about a wide range of issues. This week he's chosen to write one about the Journey of Hope and two young men who want to make a dffference.
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Click on the image to read John's Blog
Thoughts about the Pike River miners
25 November 2010
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We were incredibly shocked to hear the fate of the 29 miners when we finished riding yesterday and our thoughts go out to their families. It is poignant that our ride will take us through Greymouth in January where we will stop to pay our respects.
Xaver and Ollie
Day One
24 November 2010
Started early from Rangiputa where we spent a last night before lift-off in a neat little bach on the Northland coast.
After a great breakfast cooked by Mum it was into the car for the two-hour trip to Cape Reinga and the start of our Journey of Hope.
Xaver and I first talked about a major cycle tour 6 years ago while I was in Germany on an exchange arranged by my school Kristin College in Albany. We never thought about much more than the ride then. Adding this extra dimension of doing it for polio has been huge – both in terms of the issues we’ve had to take onboard and the level of extra work we’ve had to do. Doing it for ourselves would have meant less phone calls, less Rotary meetings and less preparation. But that’s exactly what makes it worthwhile.
We’re not doing this just for ourselves anymore – it’s mostly about helping people to understand how important polio still is, and will continue to be, if we don’t take the opportunity to eradicate it and end polio now.
Literally, no child is safe until this disease is eradicated.
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So we hit the pedals at 10 a.m. after final pictures were taken and a DOC guy who was planting there gave us $5 for PolioPlus.
Our support crew headed down the road ahead of us and hit the beaches! How supportive is that?
Great weather but we had a headwind for most of the day. That was a surprise because we had carefully worked out our route to cycle downhill and with a tail wind. After all northerlies are supposed to be the prevailing winds and we had a southerly all day.
So our rate of progress was slower than expected. The cycle computer tells us we averaged a tad over 15km an hour. The unexpectedly hilly terrain probably had a bit to do with it too we actually climbed 1043 metres during the day.
So by the time we reached our finishing place at Lake Waipareira at the end of the day we’d covered 83.66 km and taken 5hrs 25 mins doing it (without any stops). The body was feeling a bit tired and some bits were quite sore.
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Had lots of friendly waves from the locals and tourists as we went along which kept our spirits up.
Tomorrow should be slightly easier as we ride to Whangaroa which is 80.7 km according to Google Maps. Hopefully we’ll be in touch with the Rotary Club of Kaitaia on the way. The weather forecast looks pretty good though the wind is supposed to swing to the south-east.
We’ll be in touch again tomorrow.
Oliver and Xaver
The Journey of Hope commences
24 November 2010
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At ten o’clock this morning (24 November) students Xaver Hausner and Oliver Macindoe left Cape Reinga on the first leg of their 3358km Journey of Hope – to raise awareness about polio and also to raise funds for the global Rotary Foundation PolioPlus programme which is aimed at eradicating the disease of polio from the planet.
In the words of Melinda Gates (whose Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is a partner with Rotary in the struggle to eradicate polio) “the biggest obstacle we face is that people think polio is old news. It isn't old news for many people in Nigeria, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, but it could be. We are this close.”
The first leg of 87 km takes the riders down State Highway One to Lake Waipareira. Tomorrow they will travel to Whangaroa Harbour.
Details of the entire route are available on the website http://www.polio.org.nz
The ride is expected to take 54 days and is scheduled to finish on 16 January at Bluff having roundfed East.
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