Ben: Cape Reinga to Bluff on two wheels
When retirees Ben Mitchell and Beverley James moved to Wānaka, the many beautiful cycle tracks around the region enticed them to take up biking more seriously.
Preparing to leave Cape Reinga.
It was Ben who became interested in the Tour of Aotearoa. He says, “It was set up some time ago by cycling fanatics the Kennett brothers. They set themselves a target of creating a route from the top of New Zealand to the bottom and taking in as many of the famous cycleways and cycle trails as they could along the way. So it zigzags its way down and through and across the country, and it's got quite a following. Over the years, I've cycled some of the cycleways that it traverses, and it just started to worm its way into my brain as an idea.”
Billed as “one of the world’s great bikepacking trips”, Tour Aotearoa attracts adventurers from around the world in pandemic-free times. “There's a huge amount of work that the Kennett brothers and other volunteers have put into creating this ride, keeping it updated and supervising it. They don't ask for any money for it, but they do encourage people to donate to a worthy charity that means something.”
Once Ben resolved to do the tour, the charity he would donate to was “a no brainer”.
A late-in-life diagnosis
Ben remembers Beverley’s type 1 diagnosis vividly.
“She got a virus about 10 years ago when we were living in Christchurch and going through the earthquakes. It was a hell of a time. We were out of our home because it had been damaged by the earthquake, and I came down with whooping cough, which was going around at the time, and Beverley got this virus that she couldn't shake. It was debilitating. She finally went to the doctor, and she couldn't pin it down, so she did a number of blood tests, and then we got the call: come to the diabetes centre straightaway.
“It was a real shock. The virus had triggered the type 1 diabetes. So that’s been a part of her life – and our life – for the last 10 years.”
From the outset, Ben was impressed by the local support available – and grateful. “The diabetes communities in Christchurch, and now in Central Otago where we live, have been wonderful. It just seemed the right thing to do to try and contribute to that in some way and to Diabetes New Zealand with all the resources that they provide.
“Everybody knows or has heard of diabetes, but we don't know much about it until it becomes part of your family or affects someone close to you. And then it's all immediate. It’s a steep learning curve, and you’re heavily dependent on people to help you come to terms with it and to help you through the change in lifestyle, the medication-related elements, and just understanding the complexity of it all when your head’s full of that shock.”
Planning the trip
Ben set up a Givealittle page for his trip and put together an email list. “It was mostly friends as well as some business contacts and associates from over the years – really those people that I’d worked closely with, and I had a good relationship with. It was a hundred odd people I sent it out to, rather than the 2000-odd on my contact list.”
He was blown away by the enthusiasm he was met with. “I sent out introductory information and a video link about what I was planning to do and the links for the Givealittle page. A lot of people said, ‘hey, that's a great idea’, even before I started. So, in response to their generosity, I thought I should try and give them a little bit more in return.”
Once Ben started the trip, he began sending out updates. “Every day or two, I’d write an email on my phone. I'd stop at a cafe and write what I'd call a cycle log of what I'd been up to and what I'd seen and what had interested me, and I’d put in a few photos. So everyone was following with me along the way and sending emails in response, which was very motivating. And it was also my way of giving something back to them for their generosity, because people put in some very large sums of money.”
Beverley’s secret
Unbeknown to Ben, just over a week into his trip, Beverley had had a serious accident back in Wānaka.
“She was on a reasonably technical mountain bike trail not far from our home, but it was during the week so there weren't many people around. She went over the handlebars on a steep section, and, luckily, a chap found her, about 20 minutes later they think … She'd been concussed. He went up and climbed a hill to get some phone reception and called up the cavalry, then they flew a helicopter in. We’re very grateful for his help!
“She was flown to the medical center in Wānaka. Then she was put in an ambulance to the hospital at Dunston. And then she was transferred the next day by ambulance to Dunedin Hospital.She ended up having to get two titanium plates put into her forearm. So, it was a hell of a deal. It really was. But she didn't tell me any of this!” Ben remembers her being “very circumspect” on her daily phonecalls to him around this time.
“Had I known about it then, I absolutely would have stopped my trip. I might have left my gear and then gone back. I don't know what I would have done. But Beverley knew that I wouldn’t carry on ... Her friends helped out a lot, and they were all sworn to secrecy. I wasn't allowed to know.”
Ben didn’t find out what had happened until the fourth-to-last day of his tour. Because the route passed by Wānaka, he thought he would stop off at home for a quick rest. He wasn’t expecting Beverley to be there –she had been scheduled to be away on a trip with friends.
“So I came across the bridge heading to home, and there she is on the bridge taking photos of me. I said, ‘What are you doing here?’ And then she showed me the broken arm. I spent maybe a day there making sure she was okay and just being certain that I was happy to carry on to the last three or four days.”
Twenty-eight days and 3000km after he started his solo tour, Ben rode into Bluff. Beverley and a friend had driven down to meet him, along with people from the local diabetes support group. “It was lovely to be welcomed on my arrival.”
All in all, Ben raised $14,000 for diabetes.
Memories and highlights
For Ben, the trip was a mix of personal challenge, spectacular scenery, and social highlights. He often met other people who were also on the tour and stopped to chat with them or even rode with them for a while.
Friends were important, too. “Not only were my friends and family generous with donations, but some met me along the way. I stayed with some – had a meal and lots of laughs with others. One ex-boss even joined me on a 40km stretch. This personal contact during the trip really buoyed me up.”
Apart from two nights he spent camping under trees, Ben ended each day by staying at a small town hotel, a backpackers, or a cabin at a camping ground.
His most memorable stay was at a hotel at Fox Glacier that had been impacted hard by Covid-19. “They were really suffering, because of the loss of tourism. All the way down the West Coast, numbers of tourists were right down. People had lost jobs, and places were only open certain days and hours. So I stayed at this hotel in Fox Glacier. It was really nice, and the people were wonderful. I was the only guest there.” That, he says, was an eye opener.
Another of Ben’s stops was in Wellington, where he visited Diabetes NZ’s head office. “They put on morning tea for me, and it was lovely to meet them because what they do is really important. There was clearly a passion among the people who I met, and so I'm impressed by that.”
What next?
At the end of the trip, Ben let the friends on his email list know that this would be his last cycle log. ‘Two or three people came back and said, ‘No, no, go and find something else to do. We want to keep hearing your tales!’”
Ben says he’s keen to do some overnight trips around central Otago with a sleeping bag and tent. “I look at this country with different eyes now. So I look for new opportunities … but no more grand cycle adventures.”
Meanwhile, Beverley is recovering steadily from her concussion and working on regaining movement in her arm with physio. Any more new adventures, Ben says, are going to be things they do together.