Graeme Pereira: Day 5 of FireFlies Antipodes
The FireFlies Antipodes
charity ride from Christchurch to Queenstown is under way. From 17 to
23 February, the ride covers approximately 1,000km over six gruelling
days. 12 riders from the marketing, creative and production industries
are dedicating themselves to raising much-needed funds and awareness
towards the Snowdome Foundation's mission, 'making hope real for
Australians fighting blood cancers'. Here Graeme Pereira (left), editor at Arc Edit tells of Day #5...
Day
5 done as we descend into the township of Lake Hawea. Instead of being
greeted with a wall of rain our bodies seem to be engulfed by the sight
of bluest lake you could imagine.
At this point of the tour the
previous days seem to meld into one or seem like they are distant
memories. It's a combination of fatigue, living in the moment and your
mind letting go of your daily routines back home.
Time wasn't a priority today, everyone was quietly content with a later
start time and a days riding where the intensity was taken down a few
notches. However, this didn't mean we meandered along. Between the
frequent obligatory photo stops, the westerly tail wind pushed modest
peloton along at a blistering pace. At stumps my bike computer notifying
me it's the fasted 50km I have ever travelled. Half way up the last
short climb the message Bill might have been dropped passed down
the line. I dropped back to pick up Bill while the other carried on.
After a 15min wait taking in the scenery I got word from the support car
Bill was actually up ahead. It was a 25km solo journey to our
accommodation but it was only 3km up the road that Mike's head popped
over the hill to see if I was ok. A few more km up the road two became
three as Wilf was waiting at the side of the road. With
the three of us
sharing the pace duties we were back up to speed and melting away the
distance, as we descended around the corner onto the lakes edge a group
of FireFlies directed us to our accommodation. This is my second
FireFlies tour and as always no FireFly rides alone. 
Bill Doig, Freelance Producer
Malachi Moxon - Northside Locals
Carmen Barry - Northside Locals
Sam Hall, Executive Producer - Blockhead
Graeme Pereira, Editor - ARC EDIT
Wilf Sweetland, Global CEO - Sweetshop
David Llewellyn, Founder & Director - Bellweather Agency
Simon Bloomfield, Creative Director - Apparent
Leon Wilson Partner, / ECD - Robyn & Leon
James Bush, Creative Technology Lead - Fjord
Foundation, SongZu, The
Editors, TwentyOne Coffee and founding sponsors Sweetshop and RSA Films.
