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.    

To pledge a Firefly please click here.

Riders:

Matt Oxley, Managing Director – TRACK

Simon Kane, Partner / Sound Designer – Song Zu

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

This year’s ride is made possible by the generous financial sponsorship of Blockhead, Campaign Brief, Finch Company, Goodoil, Northside Locals, Panavision, Rumble, Skin Grows Back, Snowdome Foundation, SongZu, The Editors, TwentyOne Coffee and founding sponsors Sweetshop and RSA Films.