In 1995 Steve Old & Paul McKay organised the inaugural Great New Zealand Trail Ride 1996 for MS around the Coromandel. It originated from a similar event he helped establish in Australia and was a good reason to return home.
Then the second ride held on the Central Plateau certainly had its share of excitement as we really went bush in a move to reduce the amount of roadwork experienced in the first ride. Getting the mix is a biggie. A week later we returned to the Coromandel for The Great New Zealand Mountain Bike for 125 fun loving cyclists.
The third ride was the wild west coast of Raglan to Kawhia. Efforts to further fine tune the ride were put to the test with the participation of an 81 year old man with one leg and our youngest rider an 18 month old baby.
In 1999 the ride went to the most eastern part of the country and world (nearly), to the awesome East Coast. Highlights were the spellbinding Dennis Reis working the round yard, Ken Browne leading the field again, and the incredible big country that time hasn't changed.
2000 proved to be a really good mix of range and coastal riding with a new and improved route around the Coromandel. It also had 35 riders on their 5th ride seeing new country by going in the opposite direction.
For me each ride has been a memorable blur of ordered to manic chaos that has seen people from all different walks of life come together on one happy level for a week. In total around 1500 people have been on a ride raising over $160,000 for Multiple Sclerosis.
Since the rides I have been involved in the film industry with 2 years as the Horse Coordinator for The Lord of the Rings trilogy closely followed with a year on The Last Samurai before landing a job in Ireland on the set of King Arthur as the stunt double for one of the knights.
In 2004 I took the opportunity to train with Medecins Sans Frontieres in France, as a logistician, before taking a position in Sudan for 6 months www.msf.org.au . MSF (Doctors Without Borders) is one of the leading emergency aid organisations made up of mainly medical people providing assistance to those in need in over 80 countries. My role as the logistician was to complete the construction on a 160 bed hospital while keeping the programme running. It was a big job that was incredibly satisfying and has left me knowing just how lucky we are here in NZ.
Shortly after returning home I had a short stint with horses for King Kong before deciding to start a new event that would give people the opportunity to trek the length of New Zealand in supported luxury. This would be done in week long annual stages from Cape Reinga to Bluff on horseback, mountain bike or foot.
Stage 1 from Cape Reinga to Kohukohu was a fabulous success with 270 participants making the journey while raising $21,000 for Multiple Sclerosis.
Immediately after the Trek I started work in Wanaka on a film called 10,000 B.C.
It was a huge production over 5 months that had me riding in South Africa and Namibia through to the end of September.
Stage 2 attracted 230 participants on the trek from Rawene to Pouto Point.
