Story
<p>1st March - We made it! Thank you so much to everyone who has sponsored us. We thought of you all as we chugged our way over Porter's Pass in Arthurs Pass National Park before heading down into Christchurch to hit our 2200th km. It's been a windy wet hilly brilliant 7 weeks of peddle power (2015kms) and hiking (185kms). Hurray!</p>
<p>E & D AKA the SORE BUTTS xx</p>
<p>PS. We're still cycling!!!</p>
<p>PPS. More photos to follow</p>
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<p>Paste these links into your browser for extreeeeme photo overflow:</p>
<p><em>HEADING NORTH:</em></p>
<p>http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150545014954930.405581.582389929&type=1&l=3447031e00</p>
<p><em>HEADING SOUTH:</em></p>
<p>http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150509547699930.401239.582389929&type=3&l=640997152e</p>
<p><em>UPDATE 9TH FEB - Halfway now, over 1100kms - hurray! The last two weeks have included peddling across three mountain passes, carrying bikes up precarious scree slopes to Doubtful Sound, being blown off the road by gale force winds and trekking two of NZ's 'Great Walks' on Stewart Island (hit by polar front!) and the Kepler track in Fiordland (four hot stunning days from mountain top to lakeside). Tired but happy. In Te Anau about to head to Queenstown on a bumpy old two day dirt track then we hit the four day Routeburn trek. Got...to...keep...going... TBC</em></p>
<p><em>UPDATE 25TH JAN - Made it to Invercargill right at the bottom of NZ. We've hit 710 peddling-powered kms. Off to Stewart Island now for a 3 day trek, fingers crossed for better weather, it's been blowing a hoolie the last few days! <br></em></p>
<p>Hello all!</p>
<p>Are we crazy? Quite possibly. Can we do 2200kms of man-powered kms each by the time our plane takes off from NZ in mid-March, well we bloomin' well hope so...</p>
<p>If you sponsor us we hereby promise to struggle through high winds, thunderstorms, over mountain passes and past giant fish by bike and foot until we reach our target...</p>
<p>Elephant Family are doing brilliant work alongside the Wildlife Trust of India in protecting 'corridors' - ancestral routes (belts of land) used by elephants to migrate between habitats in order to feed and breed. The corridor sites are being increasingly encroached by humans leading to conflict situations resulting in deaths of both humans and elephants.</p>
<p>For those of you who don't know, we spent the last half year travelling overland (from Bristol) to India. During our visit there in December we met up with the WTI at one of the corridor sites in Assam and learnt about the urgent work they are doing there, if they can secure the corridor sites (88 proposed in India) this will provide safe migratory routes for endangered elephants for many generations to come.</p>
<p>We're now in NZ for some R&R (!!!!) after Asia. 2200kms is roughly the length from top to bottom - according to a very quick Google (it's around 1400kms by road from Lands End to John O'Groats). We've already done a test run from Christchurch to Dunedin (clocking up 370kms) and are resting our weary bones before battling the antarctic winds on the next leg to Stewart Island at the southern tip (see Dave's giant little finger on photo). After that it's a u-turn back up north to battle with the west coast sandflies...</p>
<p>Please inspire us up those hills and make the sore butts worth it!</p>
<p>Thank you...</p>
<p>E & D</p>
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