N.Z. woman has toured the world on two wheels

Press, 23 February 1977, Page 6

N.Z. woman has toured the world on two wheels

' Cycling has been a way of. [life for Louise Sutherland for) [the last 28 years—she has; ■seen 54 countries from her! bicycle. Miss Sutherland, who was: .born in Dunedin, is known: around the world in bicycle’ touring circles. She has lecitured on cycling in many [countries and has written a. book, “1 Follow the Wind.”. Her last cycling trip was in 1974 in Peru where she found herself nursing voluntarily at a small hospital in the Amazon Basin for 18 months.

She is in Christchurch to promote Bicycle Week and to meet members of C.W.F. Hamilton Marine, Ltd, to discuss a new jet boat being built for use as a river ambulance on the Amazon.

She has been raising funds for the new jet boat since she arrived hack in New Zealand in mid-1975.

The boat was being built by Hamiltons and. with a generous cut in price from them, it would cost $lO,OOO, she said.

She still has $2OOO of this to raise.

j The 16ft Jet 52 Work Boat; [will have a specially treated 'fibreglass hull to withstand! jthe rocky conditions of the! [Amazon and it wmuld be) 1 designed to have stretcher! ; space and room for medical lockers on board, she said. The little 12-bed hospital [ I which had only one doctor! and a small team of nurses, [was trying to build up a. disease prevention pro-) gramme around the villages.: The boat would be a tremendous help in transporting ■ staff on the very dangerous) river as well as for river, accidents, she said. 1 Miss Sutherland hopes that j

within the next two months [she will be able to arrange [for the doctor of the hospital to come to New Zealand for a course in boat mainitenance with Hamiltons.. Louise Sutherland did her nursing training at Oamaru hospital. “I suppose 1 started cycling [ because of the state of my 'finances. I used to cycle on my days oft and if I went to Dunedin for a holiday I would ride my bicycle there. “Everybody thought I was mad ‘hen. “Mv trip around Europe

began when I was in Britain. I had just cycled around Scotland and was travelling to Cornwall for a holiday. I was battling against a head wind so I decided to turn round then and there and go the other way. What began as a three-week holiday ended as six years of travelling aroupd Europe. “I never did get back to West Country. In fact, my travels have always been in a westerly direction —against that prevailing westerly wind!" She has lidden her bicycle

[through the Middle East, ■from Vancouver to New York on a five-month trip, ■and on roads high in the ' Andes. She was the first cyclist to get to the North [ Cape of Norway — the road : was opened two weeks be--1 fore she got there. Camping beside an erupting volcano in Iceland was memorable to [ say the least, as were the : atrocious roads in that country. she said.

“In 27 years of cycling in 53 countries 1 had never had a puncture. I had never caught any real illness, and I had never been robbed. My fifty-fourth country was Peru and there I spoilt my record, losing all my possessions on a bus in Lima, had mv first puncture, and caught hepatitis.

I “I have found myself sufi fering from fear and loneli- . ness on long-distance trips '■ but. never so much that it [ has put me off. “Weather would be the main problem the cyclist has to contend with,” she said. I “Storms and head winds are a problem and one you can Ido nothing about. But I don’t : believe in pushing myself if . it’s hard work. I'd much ’ rather get off and walk, pushing my bike and trailer too.”

I New Zealand today would [have the finest roads in the [ world for a cycling holiday, [Miss Sutherland said.

“They are fabulous — especially compared with the corrugations I was used to when I first started cycling here.

“Cycling reallv is very safe here with fairly good weather, no dangerous animals to contend with, generallv polite motorists, good roads, and just enough hills to make it interesting.”