South Island ride almost completed

15 March update

Having left Murchison this morning, the five riders in the Ride Out Of The Blue team are on their way to Blenheim. With over 1000km under our wheels, the tour of the South Island is almost complete.

John, Hazel, Dave, Chris and Alison depart Makarora.

Over the past seven days, Dave, Chris, John, Hazel and I have enjoyed mild weather and spectacular scenery as we cycled down the Haast Pass and up the West Coast.

As the event nears halfway, over $13,500 has been raised for the Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand. We are certainly noticeable in our colourful riding outfits. Our support crew also takes every opportunity to spread the message and raise awareness.

Alison leads as the group head north.

Alison with Fran who joined the group for a section around Greymouth

Alison Blyth, Organiser, Ride Out of the Blue

Terrific start for riders

How exciting! Saturday finally arrives. It’s 8am and seven riders gather at Bluff in a chilly morning with light rain. With our supporters there to cheer us on our way, the 2011 Ride Out Of The Blue begins.

A brisk ride led to the Avanti Plus shop in Invercargill for a photo opportunity - the boys there had done a superb job on Friday servicing and assembling our bikes.

Following that it’s off to Lumsden, 114km ride, where we arrived just after lunch. The rain had cleared giving us a perfect cool day. Everyone arrived in good spirits.

Sunday’s ride brought us back to earth, however. Light rain in cold conditions caused all riders discomfort over the first 40km.

Fortunately, a friendly shopkeeper at Garsten took pity on us all. Tony took us into his home, made us all coffee and hot soup and even lit a fire for us. An hour and a half later, well behind schedule but thawed out and revitalized, we made our way to Queenstown.

The ride into Wanaka was magnificent. With the weather clear and sunny, we climbed the Crown Range. The scenery was inspiring as we crossed the summit and flowed down to the finish. 

Ride Out Of The Blue is living up to our hopes and dreams and our fabulous support crew is always being asked about the event. With three days completed, the party is working well together and ready now to tackle the West Coast. 

Alsion & Dave


Alison Blyth, Organiser, Ride Out of the Blue

Five days to Ride Out of the Blue

We are following with increasing dismay the unfolding events in Christchurch. Our thoughts and prayers are with every person affected.
When the earthquake happened hundreds of people contacted us to ask how it would affect our ride. All we could agree was, it will make the ride even more important. 

Following natural disasters, particularly those of the scale that have affected Christchurch, the incidence of depression in the area of that disaster increases. We are helping to raise awareness of that issue and to fund an organisation that is at the coal face providing support and resources.  We were always riding for a cause, but now it feels even more critical. Kia kaha Christchurch.

Ride starts this Saturday

We start on 5 March at Bluff. The planning, the training, the anticipation is over.  The Aussie riders have packed their bikes.  The Kiwi riders are saying goodbye to their families.  A short flight across the ditch, or in the case of the Kiwi riders a drive down the island, some beautiful Bluff oysters, a mechanical tweak or two by Avanti at Invercargill, and we’ll be on our bikes. By Saturday, the full group will have gathered and the ride begins (riding ready or not). 

Cameron, Alison and Helen clean down the Jamis to pack it away

 
We may not have started riding yet but Ride Out of the Blue is already proving a success both socially and economically.
Our riders continue to raise awareness for mental health with our archive recording more than 15 different media articles or interviews and more are planned.

We have fundraised over $8,900 to date, and we expect there will be more funds raised along the way, including by the raffle and the Auckland Party (more details on these below).

I got this message this morning and it truly humbled me:

"Hi Alison Met you at the Ride for Life in Brisbane at the weekend. I wanted to say congratulations on the work you are doing on creating awareness of the issues around suicide.

"We have had the extraordinary honour of meeting people such as you  working on really important issues.

"As Pat McGorrie (2010 Australian of the Year) explained. We don't know how to cure cancer and yet we do heaps about it, but we do know how to deal with mental health and yet we don't. Keep up the hard work. We'll be following your ride! Regards Julie Watson"

Julie Watson is an extraordinary woman, the mother of Jessica who is the youngest person to sail non-stop and unassisted around the world, and who was named one of the 10 "2010 Adventurers of the Year", a worldwide list, by National Geographic Society, and in 2011 was made Young Australian of the Year. 

Jessica’s parents are New Zealanders and she has dual Australian and New Zealand nationality. These words of encouragement and inspiration from a mother who has raised such a resilient and confident child are truly humbling.  (Of course her Kiwi heritage gave her the raw nerve to take on the challenge in the first place!)

Back to the ride and our planning… I’m a bit worried about how our rider Dave will go: he’s the strongest rider among us but he’s going to miss his lovely supportive wife, Nicky, and his four children.

Twenty seven days is a long time to be away from such a wonderful family. Nicky has backed the ride from the start, giving Dave crucial time to train and even training alongside him, helping us out with fundraising and constant shout outs on Facebook. All those in favour of Nicky sneaking along for some of the ride say “Aye!”

I’m taking my family with me

My super hubby and mechanic extraordinaire, Duncan, my “big girl”  Lilla, my hunk of a 19-year-old Cam and his beautiful girlfriend, Rachel, and even my Mum and Dad are coming with me. All their support and encouragement along the way will make all the difference. My cup runneth over.

We’ve done some last minute planning to include a raffle and an Auckland Party in our fundraising efforts. Please visit the Ride out of the Blue  website for details on these and if you’re interested, please support the ride by buying tickets or coming along to the Party. 

The raffle prizes are one-off so check it out or you’ll miss out forever. And we‘re hoping to confirm a celebrity MC to help make the party great fun, so stay tuned!

My next Blog will be from 100% Pure New Zealand.

Alison Blyth, Organiser, Ride Out of the Blue

Ride Out Of The Blue gains momentum

Just over three weeks to go till our Ride Out of the Blue (ROOTB), and things are getting hectic.

Our main riders are busy getting miles “into their legs” and riding consecutive days – all in the name of preparation.
We have received expressions of interest from several other riders, including a number of fitness and cycling clubs, planning on joining the ride at various stages.

Our core riders have taken delivery of their ROOTB cycling outfit. It looks great. 

Hazel reports: “I rode in my outfit today and received a lot of positive comments. I thought I looked quite smart. I took the elastic out of the legs of the shorts so they are more comfortable. The jersey is really light and comfy.”

On the supporters and sponsorship front, Ultimo Clothing has offered support with a riders kit,  Avanti is assisting with bike maintenance and service en route, while Bluebridge Ferries is providing inter island transport. It’s wonderful to find such interest and support for what we hope to achieve.

Media coverage and awareness grow

We are fortunate to already have received media coverage in several city and regional newspapers, magazines and online publications.  TV coverage is expected for the start of the ride on Saturday 5 March. During the ride, a national radio summary is proposed every Sunday night on RadioLIVE’s The Nutters Club.

Our aim of raising awareness of mental health issues is beginning to find success. An exciting development is a proposed community awareness event to be held at Waiheke Island with the WISH trust. More details will follow.

To date, Ride Out of the Blue (official site) has raised over $5700 for the Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand.Donations can be made through Fundraise Online or directly to the Foundation. A special thank you to Blue Fitness Ltd for its generous donation of $1000!

It's exciting to see the challenge gathering momentum and achieving its aim to "celebrate life, raise awareness for depression, and raise money for the Mental Health Foundation." 

For us the excitement is compounded by the realisation that we are less than a month away from your beautiful country.

Read more in the latest issue of In Touch

Alison

(Alison Blyth, Organiser, Ride Out of the Blue)

Ride Out of the Blue

A first: a first Ride Out of the Blue Blog, my first blog. 

More firsts: a first bike challenge for mental health in NZ, my first event. So I beg your patience. With so many firsts I’m bound to muck this up a bit.

Ride Out of the Blue is a 2,500km journey from Bluff to Cape Reinga to raise awareness of depression and money for the Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand to held provide resources for depression. I’m organising it because I love riding,

I’ve suffered depression, I’ve lost relatives who’ve suffered depression to suicide, and I can’t do nothing whilst New Zealand’s brightest and best young men commit suicide. 

But! Off the soap box. Ride Out of the Blue is about celebrating life. In the words of James E. Starrs, “Melancholy is incompatible with bicycling.”

Riding is brilliant.  Whether getting out to turn the pedals with friends, to sip lattes and talk about lycra, or to ride hills beyond my abilities and in doing so to put back into perspective what’s dogging me. I can think of no other activity that enables a balance of healthy body, healthy mind, as simply as riding.  

On ya bike!

It’s non-exclusive, universal, empowering. Get a bike.

Planning Ride Out of the Blue and training for it has been, is, a mammoth task: gathering support, commitment, putting myself out there as an event organiser and long distance cyclist – vulnerable moments as I'm not either, bothering my family and friends with constant updates about “the Ride”.

It’s happening now – in six weeks.  We have four committed riders, we have the support of the NZ Police, and we have raised over $4k.  We’ve made a difference and have the chance to make a bigger difference. 

Seriously exciting pursuit

It’s seriously exciting to be a part of this. One of our riders, Dave, has had some great press coverage: Ride To a Better Life

Providence has opened every door for this Ride to come about, despite the rain and the floods here in tropical Queensland where three of the riders live.The torrential rain has stopped any training, the floods have destroyed our cycle paths and, in my case, inundated our rental house. Check out the photos!

Now the sun is out, the flood damage is being assessed and repaired, and riders everywhere are back on their bikes. This weekend  Chris (one of our riders) and myself are heading down to Victoria to do the Audax Alpine Classic 250km and 200km. With little riding lately it’s going to hurt some.  But with alpine scenery around us, where else would I rather hurt – where else but New Zealand of course!

Alison Blyth, Organiser, Ride Out of the Blue