Bill Doig: Day 2 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 is Bill Doig, freelance producer on today’s ride…

The hardest thing about getting up on the morning of day 2 is not knowing exactly what’s ahead and how you will perform. Day 1 totally kicked my ass. Dirty great hill and evil head wind to finish.

During the tour, daily maps are withheld until the night before. Thoughts that run through your head include: Will tomorrow beat me? Do I have the heart required? How big are these bloody hills?

We’ve just finished day 2 of 6. I’m nursing my third Montieth’s Black (not a tour sponsor btw) and feeling good. The landscape here is extraordinary, the people around you have your back (Wilf almost pushed me up one hill), the support crew is as key as your fellow riders, and you’re riding with cause in your heart. You know you’ve done as much prep work as you can, but is it enough? Who knows. I hope so.

Today we experienced epic landscapes and mixed weather, but overall the hills were easy on me. At 138km and 1040 metres elevation, I’ll take it. Almost ended up in a ditch thanks to an overly familiar hay truck, but all in all, today was a definite high.

I think everyone should ride Fireflies.

To pledge a Firefly please click here.

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.