Di Tocker with Cambridge’s Bill Christenson
Among the highlights of her 3000km cycle ride that raised over $8250 for Aroha Cambridge, Di Tocker is particularly grateful for a couple.
Nicola Keighley and Di Tocker on day one – at Cape Reinga.
One was the companionship of friend and fellow rider Nicola Keighley, another that they came out of it physically unscathed.
Then there was the carload of strangers… fishermen she dubs her ‘angels’. They showed up with her phone after Tocker inadvertently left it at the side of the Nevis Road, on a narrow gravel drop of 700m in 10km leading down from the Gartston ski hut.
“That day was 14 hours,” she said. “I had tyre issues and left my phone behind. When I realised what had happened, I was mentally prepared to go back up, but when I stopped a carload of fishermen coming out of the valley, they opened the window and held out my phone! They had found it on the side of the road. Those guys were my angels … they saved me about four extra hours.”
Tocker and Keighley set off from Cape Reinga on February 19, their plan to bike the 3000km Tour Aotearoa route with a target of $3 raised for each kilometre. They rode into Bluff on March 20, having raised $8521 along the way.
Di Tocker and fellow rider Nicola Keighley at the top of Duffers Saddle.
Tocker is co-chair of Aroha Cambridge, the charitable trust set up last year to promote the restoration and protection of the town’s natural environment. She saw the self-supported ride as her commitment to that task, and was delighted when Nicola, her Hamilton-based friend and frequent co-rider, said she would join her.
“I was extremely glad to have her with me. There was a lot of decision-making every day and it’s better to share that.”
The pair worked on a daily average daily of 100km and planned for two days of rough weather. They were lucky to have had only a day-and-a-half of bad weather. They rode a daily average of 85km for the first eight, and their longest stretch overall was 167km from Ashhurst to Martinborough.
“That was because of bad weather forecast,” Tocker said. “We either had to put three days’ riding into two days to escape it or have a rest day. We decided to put three days into two, which is why it ended up being 167km.”
In honour of her pest-reduction mission, Di Tocker popped some fake rats on her helmet and handlebars.
Each took their own form of distraction – Tocker her audio books and Keighley her music. Expending around 4000 calories a day, they found healthy refuelling stops that kept them going without spiking.
Di Tocker
A particularly challenging stretch was the Waiuta track. “We had to lift our bikes over fallen trees and do a lot of walking because it was so slippery and narrow.”
The Nevis Road stretch – where Tocker lost her phone – was also pretty tough.
“Maungakawa Hill in Cambridge is our training hill, but this was like doing it three times over. But it was the long flats that were the hardest on the body.”
They had an unplanned rest day in Cromwell on day 27, to make the upcoming Nevis Road climb “enjoyable rather than enduring”.
Both women were delighted to have met up with fellow Cambridge rider Jason Mouat, who was going at a cracking pace. “He started a week later than us and caught up with us three days before the finish.”
They also caught up with Bill Christenson, one of those involved in the restoration of Cambridge’s Te Puna Marama, or Moon Spring. He decided to join them on the ride up the saddle on Nevis Pass.
At the end of it, they took a few relaxing days off before heading home. Another ride could be on the cards, said Tocker, who is also a noted glass artist in her other life, but not for a while.
Di Tocker celebrated the end of her 3000km ride.
Di Tocker with Cambridge’s Bill Christenson on Duffers Saddle, New Zealand’s highest road.
