Grannies pedal north

Press, 18 February 1989, Page 32

Grannies pedal north

PA Nelson When three Southland grandmothers decided to pay some of their Takaka grandchildren a visit, no-one knew the trip north was going to take two weeks. Thirteen days and 1078 km later the trio arrived in Motueka by 12-speed bicycle after averaging 80km a day. Mesdames Joyce Baker, aged 56, Iris Elder, aged 60, and Hazel Radford, aged 55, class themselves as fit and said they “just decided to give it a go”. They knew each other in Southland and decided to take up the challenge and visit Mrs Baker’s daughter and Mrs Radford’s son in Takaka. They marked the end of their trip recently by sleeping in tents on the Takaka Hill. They said they didn’t get any punc-

tures and met interesting people on the way. One was a Levin man, aged 84, whom they met biking on the Nelson side of the Lewis Pass. “We just faded into insignificance after that,” Mrs Elder said. They struck all sorts of weather including a thunderstorm through the Lindis and a “frightening” gale through the Lewis Pass. They were headed back south by bus, because time did not allow them to bike home again. Mrs Radford said when the trio left they didn’t know whether they could keep biking day after day. “Just being able to do it was great. We just had a lot of fun together and a lot of laughs,” she said.