A group of everyday blokes have pledged to bike the length of Aotearoa – for a second time.
The Rescue Warriors rode from Cape Reinga to Bluff in 24 days back in 2022, and gathered over $100,000 for the Canterbury West Coast Air Rescue helicopters.
On the back of air rescue’s Mission 2026 fundraising campaign, the Rescue Warriors have reassembled in preparation for a 2026 ride.
Organiser Bruce Kell and fellow Mid Cantabrians David Keeley, Willy Leferink and Warren Harris, named themselves the Rescue Warriors and completed the 3000 kilometre bike in 2022.
They did it to prove their bodies were “not yet ready for retirement”.
They vlogged their way across the country to keep Facebook followers in the know, and will do the same this year.
The fundraiser officially kicked off on Tuesday night at the Hinds community centre, where the Hinds and District Lions donated $10,000 to the helicopter as a kickstart.
Several members of the biking group are also members of the Lions club.
Kell said the previous event was an all round success.
“When we did the first one, we were aiming for $25,000,” he said. They ended up raising about $103,000.
“We had about an hour of rain over that whole trip. Be nice if the same thing happened for this one!”
Kell said he’d intended to reattempt the bike in 2027 anyway, so when air rescue spread news about Mission 2026, he opted to bring it a year forward.
The Mission 2026 campaign aims to raise enough funds for new helicopters and equipment for the Canterbury region.
Kell said the choppers are a vital resource for Mid Cantabrians – something he knows from personal experience.
“My father used it twice.
“There’re a number of us that have had close family members use it, or have actually used it; one of our riders on the e-bikes has used it himself.”
Giving back was a no brainer.
At the moment, two biking groups are preparing for the ride.
“There’s three of us original warriors, using pedal power, and five in the e-bike group.”
The groups will start at opposite ends of the country, meet up at some point, then continue onwards.
Kell said the bikers may be GPS tracked, so the community can keep updated on where in the country they are.
He added that people who want to contribute outside of funding can do portions of the ride.
“We’ll give people the opportunity to register and say ‘I’ll do a tenth of what you do’.
“That’s one of our aims as well, to try and encourage people to get off the couch and out and start doing stuff.”
Kell picked up biking a few years ago when he became concerned about his health.
The track isn’t too treacherous, he said. The group follow the Tour Aotearoa brevet, which only operated from February to March due to tides along 90 Mile beach.
He said distance, not difficulty, was the main issue and that anyone could bike the brevet with good training.
“It was my 60th birthday riding down 90 Mile beach. I think the youngest person on the team is 59 years old.”
Between now and bike time, the riders will do some sporadic training to build endurance.
“Because we’ve got a lot of new riders, it’ll just be a gradual build up to the trip.”
“We were averaging about 130 kilometres a day, so we have to bring them up to that.”
The ride will take place in 2026, between late February and early March. The Rescue Warriors will post updates to their Facebook page as the event draws closer.
By Anisha Satya
