Hawke’s Bay locals put an uphill slant on Hawke’s Bay promotion

For Havelock North locals Cam McLeay and Chris Morris, the temptation of a gruelling but scenic week mountain biking in the South Island was too much to resist. Both ride Te Mata Peak regularly with mates and have signed up for the week long inaugural ‘Pioneer’ challenge starting next week, mountain biking from Christchurch to Queenstown traversing sections of the Southern Alps.

Not for the faint hearted, The Pioneer is a Mountain Bike Stage Race of the Southern Alps New Zealand covering 7 days or racing, 569km of riding and 15, 275m of climbing. www.thepioneer.co.nz

Since selling his adventure tourism business in Uganda a year ago, Cam McLeay has had a little more time for training, and is looking forward to travelling to his old stomping ground Queenstown, albeit the long way.

Chris Morris, co-owner of Havelock North’s Pipi Cafe has kept himself busy making pizza in the Pipi Pizza Truck, and admits that he hasn’t done quite as much training as he would have liked to. “With a restaurant on the go it’s hard to think about anything else sometimes. I am particularly looking forward to a week away camping, my 10yr old son is coming along as part of the support team so we can soak up the high country locations”

Regular advocates and promoters of Hawke’s Bay, Chris and Cam along with Chris’s brother Matt, a fireman from Wellington, will be donning riding kit adorned with the “Get me to Hawke’s Bay” banner. Chris said “there is going to be considerable media coverage of the event, especially internationally, so it seemed a shame not to promote Hawke’s Bay so I got in touch with Hawke’s Bay Tourism to see if they wanted to use us as advertising boards”.

Annie Dundas, General Manager, Hawke’s Bay Tourism agreed: “After all, they have been training on the Hawke’s Bay Trails and mountain bike tracks from Waipukurau to Eskdale and if they can inspire more cyclists to come and ride our world class trails then that’s just fantastic. Tourism New Zealand is a sponsor of The Pioneer so an opportunity to leverage all of this attention was too good to refuse so we are delighted to have Chris, Cam and Matt showcasing the Hawke’s Bay brand”

Local sun-block company Skinnies has got the team covered, and Al Borrie from Firsthand Coffee is supplying the crucial caffeine for the journey, along with a camp coffee set-up.

Follow the team’s adventure at #getmetohawkesbay.

ENDS

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