February 8, 2010
Refreshed after our sojourn at John and Marge’s place we returned to the Pelorus for the bike leg Jo wasn’t looking forward to. My comment that the route was ‘essentially downhill’ was treated with total derision. It was 14kms of up, down and windy gravel road that took us in no time to Pelorus Bridge [...]
Categories: Graeme Dingle, Jo-anne Wilkinson, S12, South Island | Comments [2]
January 25, 2010
Dear Prince William
Please join Graeme and me on The Big Walk.
Much love
Jo-anne
Dear Jo-anne
I can’t join you on The Big Walk but why don’t you come to my barbie in Wellington.
Much love
William
Anyway, this is the story Jo-anne tells which led to us leaving the bush at Nelson Lakes and flying to Wellington for a brief royal [...]
Categories: Graeme Dingle, Jo-anne Wilkinson, South Island | Comments [1]
January 19, 2010
After 10 days of van life I spent the night of the 10th of January a bit nervously. Would the feet be healed enough – would they pack up again – was the terrain as difficult etc. Boyle Village in Lewis Pass greeted us with mist, heavy rain and single digit temperatures – more of [...]
Categories: Cynth, Jo-anne Wilkinson, S10, South Island, Uncategorized | Comments Off
January 18, 2010
It was pouring rain when we met the group at the Boyle Outdoor Education Centre – Sam (female) and Dylan had been on the leg from Hurunui to Boyle, along with Jacinda Sleeman, and FYD Programme Director from Auckland. The new recruits, from Marlborough, were Jessie, Brendon and Chris Shaw, who FYD Programme Manager from [...]
Categories: Graeme Dingle, Jo-anne Wilkinson, S10, S9, South Island, Uncategorized | Comments [2]
January 7, 2010
December 30 and we had ascended and descended some very steep faces to exit at Forest Stream (in the North Island it would clearly be known as a river; 500m wide and braided). We then had to follow the stream for about 6km to reach Cynthia and Bill with the pick-up vehicles which had come [...]
Categories: Cynth, Jo-anne Wilkinson, S8, S9, South Island, Sponsors | Comments Off
January 5, 2010
Bill Roxburgh texted to say he had been first on scene to a road accident and would be late picking up the young people who were to join us that day. They finally arrived around 5pm so we weren’t going anywhere that day. Earlier GD and I had biked from Tekapo township down a long [...]
Categories: Jo-anne Wilkinson, S6, Uncategorized | Comments Off
December 29, 2009
The Timaru event with the ANZ and Kiwi Can was a wonderful occasion with lots of singing, laughing and Christmas cheer.
Next morning Jo-anne arrived from Auckland. We had no mercy on her, drove her straight to the place we had finished in the Ahuriri and without ceremony got her on her bike. We pedalled a [...]
Categories: Graeme Dingle, Jo-anne Wilkinson, South Island, Uncategorized | Comments [4]
December 1, 2009
We woke with a feeling of relief, not only that we would finally be underway today but that the gale force winds of the last week had dropped to a crisp south easterly breeze. Tracey from Classic Hits arrived just after 7am full of the brightness of the day and bearing a Chocolate Mud [...]
Categories: Jo-anne Wilkinson, S1, South Island | Comments [2]
November 18, 2009
When we established the organisation that is now FYD we could scarcely have imagined that 15 years later we would have nearly 20,000 young people in programmes – young people who will contribute to a better New Zealand.
But there is still much to do and as The Big Walk develops you’ll see how this event [...]
Categories: Auckland, FYD, Graeme Dingle, Jo-anne Wilkinson, Preparation | Comments [1]
Good on you Uncle Graeme and to all the team that made the committment to help those less fortunate than ...