This year’s World Vision 40 Hour Challenge is encouraging participants to do “40 hours offline”, and three Motueka High School students will certainly not be sitting around waiting for the time to pass.
Lower Moutere’s Jenny Willers and German exchange students Paul Kaufmann and Moritz Knauer are planning to each bike 400km in 40 hours. They will begin at 5am in Lower Moutere, utilising the Great Taste Trail to cycle to Kaiteretere.
Jenny says their “super amazing support crew” will meet them at Peninsula Bridge on route to Nelson, then back to Māpua and Redwood Valley before home.
Day two’s route will take the trio to Tapawera, Wakefield and Dovedale, before returning to Motueka “where we finish and do some victory laps around town at about 5pm, and ride back home”, Jenny says.
This year’s World Vision 40 Hour Challenge will support families in the Solomon Islands, providing tools and seeds to farm climate-smart crops, plant mangroves to protect their land from rising sea levels and restore fish populations and provide sustainable food sources for future generations.
Jenny, Moritz and Paul are looking to raise $1500 from their bike ride, which they are undertaking on Matariki weekend.
Paul, who comes from Frankfurt, says that he wants to push himself to his limits.
“This kind of action is very new for me – the fundraising part as well as the challenge itself. I have done some long distances by bike, but not even close to the 400km in 40 hours,” he says.
He is keen to participate to “make sure that children all over the world are supplied with water and food”.
A World Vision spokesperson says that Motueka High School students have certainly taken the challenge head-on.
Another group of students is aiming to do a 40-hour triathlon which involves 40km of running, 40km of cycling, and 4km of swimming.
Meanwhile, the school’s adventure racing team is aiming to summit 14 peaks around the Tasman region.
World Vision’s Associate National Director TJ Grant says he’s blown away by the challenges New Zealand’s young people are taking on for the World Vision 40 Hour Challenge.
“It’s inspiring to see so many young people put themselves to the test to support their peers in Solomon Islands who don’t get enough to eat each day due to the changing climate,” he says, adding that the 40-hour sacrifice will make a world of difference for hungry children there.
