Bruce Kell - Rescue Warriors #1

Ever wondered what it would take to cycle the entire length of New Zealand? Bruce Kell and his fellow Rescue Warriors didn't just wonder—they did it. Inspired by a coffee table book and fuelled by a desire for challenge, these locals conquered 3,000km of New Zealand's most diverse terrain in just 24 days. Now they want to do it again! Luke sat down with Bruce to first reflect on the first mission... 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Last month, more than thirty locals supported the Westpac helicopter
something called the Back to Base Challenge, raising over twenty
three thousand dollars. The idea was to cover the distance
equivalent to the real rescue helicopter mission and raise funds
for the Canterbury West Coast Air Rescue Trust, which is
the one that serves us. It turned out that the
event has also proved to be some early training for

(00:22):
a group of local lads calling themselves the Rescue Warriors.
You might remember that these were the ones who biked
the length of the country a few years back, something
called Tour Alteroa. One of the Warriors is Bruce Cowley.
Stopped by for a chance and we were reflecting on
that mission.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
I'm blaming my wife for this. She brought me a
book to go on a coffee table the twenty sixteen
to a t erow so that was the original bike
ride from Cape Rihanna to Bluff. And I read this
book and I thought, well, that's what I'm going to do.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
You didn't think about it just taking up golf, for
I played.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
Golf before, done or done done, all that sort of stuff.
But I just thought I needed a challenge. And it's
on a head of a challenge. And I talked to
a couple of bikers on a member of the Hinds lines,
and I talked to a few of the fellows out there,
and all of a sudden there was four that were
quite keen to four of us that were quite keen
to do the twenty twenty two to a tier rows.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
So who were those four other briefs?

Speaker 2 (01:19):
So there was myself, there was David Keeley, WOOLLYE. Leffrinck
and Warren Harris with the four original rescue warriors. Ifebruary
the twenty fifth was the day we left. It was
actually my sixtieth birthday. Was riding down ninety mile Beach
was a boring, boring ride down.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
Ninety Beach to believe me. Okay, so the beginning wasn't
highlighted the trend.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
Well, no, it was probably. It was probably the toughest day,
and actually from then on it actually tended to get
a bit easier.

Speaker 1 (01:45):
So the burn was the greatest out to day way.

Speaker 2 (01:47):
Yeah, it was just it was just constant. You couldn't
see an end of point. It was just seen and
you couldn't see an endpoint, and you had head wind
all day. So it was tough work. You look forward to.

Speaker 1 (01:59):
It for a start.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
It didn't take long before you got sick of it.

Speaker 1 (02:01):
Overall, it was what three thousand kilometers three thousand kilometers?
And how long did it take?

Speaker 2 (02:06):
We did it in twenty four days. We left with
the thought that we would have our off days when
the bad weather, when we struck bad weather. We rode
the length of New Zealand in twenty four days continuously
with one hour of rain on the west coast. What, Yeah,
a great way to see the country. Because we were
doing you know, one hundred and twenty k's a day,
something like that. And there were some real tough some

(02:31):
real tough areas of monotypic track between Nelson and picton
very steep, very shingly. You were pushing bikes, and of
course our bikes are fully laden, we were unsupported. So
we carried our tents, We carried all our gear with
us on our.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
Bikes, your water and stuff too.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
Yes, you carried your water, so you're sort of always carrying,
you know, sort of a minimum of three liters of
water if you could, if you could do that. But
we stopped at every shot, you know. But there were
some places coming through the middle of the North Island,
there was no shops were right the bush, so you
were riding for quite some time.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
So wow, most of the terre.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
The great thing about it, whether we enjoyed I suppose
you were off track for a lot of off road
for a lot of it, so you're on single tracks
and formed properly formed bike tracks. So yeah, right, it
was a great a great ride. I probably wouldn't enjoy
it doing it on road. The same we are on
road for parts of it. They can't be missed.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
But our roads seem to be built four cars, not
necessarily for sharing.

Speaker 2 (03:29):
Yes, exactly right. And we didn't notice that about up
up around Aland, and that there was a couple of
times that some cars got a wee bit close and
you're a wee.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
Bit lgious about it, and yeah, whereas when.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
We come down to the South Island, we go down
the West Coast, so we do the West Coast Wilderness Trail,
so we're off the roads and new Yeah.

Speaker 1 (03:45):
Right.

Speaker 2 (03:46):
Unfortunately it is on the other side of the island.
But the fundraisers that were for West Coast Rescue covers
the West Coast and Canterbury.

Speaker 1 (03:56):
Yeah, yeah, it does.