Big bike trip update

Three Grey Lynn locals - Freddie and Arthur Gillies with Sean Wakely - are riding their push bikes from Indonesia to London, raising money for Leukaemia and Blood Cancer New Zealand. Arthur reported to Ponsonby News late last year.


"Before leaving for this trip back in May, there existed many uncertainties - one of these being how fast we’d actually be able to ride these 45kg bikes through South East Asia, and subsequently where we’d end up for Christmas.

"After the first three months, it became apparent that our original target in Hanoi was not far enough, so we made the executive decision to knock out our South East Asian leg before Christmas, which would include riding west from Hanoi, through Laos, Northern Thailand and Myanmar.

"We currently find ourselves in Chiang Mai, following a seven-day slog from Luang Prabang, knocking out over 700km and averaging over 1000 vertical metres of climbing every day. It’s been tough work. Laos certainly put us to the test with its mountainous profile, and dishevelled roads making for slow progress at times. Its sparsity meant we camped three nights, despite being urged not to due to the prevalence of unexploded ordnance (UXO) leftover from the Vietnam/American War.

"This aside, we’ve put ourselves in a very good position to make it to our final target in Mandalay, fighting through multiple bouts of food poisoning since leaving Hanoi in late October.

"Though we aimed to ride 6500km before Christmas, at the time of writing this, we are 9100km deep, with the prospect of knocking out the 10,000km milestone within the next two weeks."

As Ponsonby News went to press the trio had raised $8507 of their $15,000 target. ”Please take the time to follow the link below,” wrote Gillies, “and help the six New Zealanders who are diagnosed with some form of blood cancer or related disease every day. Any donation, big or small, is greatly appreciated.”

DONATE: my.leukaemia.net.nz/thebigbiketrip