Volodymyr Zelenskyy wraps up his meeting with European and Canadian leaders in London and more healthcare workers are lured to Australia. Video / NZ Herald, AFP
Hawke’s Bay Today reporter Jack Riddell took on a mammoth challenge, scootering from Napier to Wellington along State Highway 2 with 300 others.
Arriving at the foot of Remutaka Hill, the busy road stretched upwards into the clouds with the headwind blowing a gale. I pulled back on the accelerator of the 50cc scooter and pushed on into oblivion, very slowly.
The alarm had earlier sounded at 4.30am on Saturday. It was a sound that I had been dreading.
Several months prior in a start-of-the-workday haze, an email arrived asking if I would be interested in competing in the Grand Annual Jolly Good Chaps Napier-to-Wellington 50cc Scooter Challenge to help raise money for Hawke’s Bay charities.
In my pre-caffeinated state, it sounded like a good time and signed up. But when I mentioned it to my fiancee, I was met with a shocked look.
“Can you even fit on a 50cc scooter?” my soon-to-be-wife enquired.
“Of course I can,” I scoffed, before realising that I hadn’t thought about that when I agreed.
What followed were several months of sleepless nights visualising the final scene of Easy Rider ... but instead of hunky actors astride Harley-Davidsons being gunned down by hillbillies, it was me riding a scooter being blown off the road by a passing truck.
Arriving at the start line in Napier, it looked like a gathering of New Zealand’s strangest motorcycle gang. Shrek rubbed shoulders with Evel Knievel, Elmo enjoyed a coffee with a bunch of bananas. There were other interesting looks.
According to Jolly Good Chaps trustee Glenn Fulcher, 302 eager scooter riders lined up at the start line.
Here I met my loaned scooter and horned helmet. I christened the scooter “Carlos” after the handsome Spaniard Formula 1 driver Carlos Sainz Jnr. The helmet didn’t need a name.
Our team, The Heavy Hitters, which included Adam Green, co-host of The Hits Hawke’s Bay’s breakfast show, looked like the rejects from a Jane Fonda workout tape in our bright sweatsuits and leg warmers. At least passing trucks would easily spot us.
Soon the flag dropped and the ride was on. Carlos lurched into life and sped off at a blistering top speed of 45km/h down Marine Parade onwards to the capital.
The first pit stop was at Henry’s Family Pies in Ōtāne, where a dollar from each pie sold would be donated to the riders’ cause. I was so excited by this deal I was considering buying three.
But driving into town the fear started to takeover, particularly after a close call with an 18-wheeler. My stomach churned and the anxiety turned up to 11.
I thought I was going to faint or throw up, but I continued one kilometre at a time.
I caught up with my team who had kindly left me behind to find my own way. Luckily, I was too strung out to be bothered and could only stomach one pie, which is unusual for a man of my hunger.
Hawke's Bay Today reporter Jack Riddell on his scooter Carlos competing in The Annual Jolly Good Chaps Napier to Wellington 50cc Scooter Charity Challenge. Photo / Steve Bowie - Bowie Photography
Next was Dannevirke, and the roads started to really test me and Carlos’ relationship. Carlos was reaching speeds between 15 to 20km/h up hills and I was quickly becoming the bane of Central Hawke’s Bay’s road users’ lives.
About 5km out of Dannevirke my enthusiasm for the ride was waning. I was dizzy, sick, worried, lonely and ready to quit.
Upon entering the Viking stronghold of Tararua, I got off Carlos and was ready to hop on the tail-end Charlie bus heading to Wellington with other retirees and quit.
But talking to others at the pit stop and sharing our trials and tribulations on the ride, I knew I could finish it.
Mounting Carlos, the journey then went through pit stops at Mangatainoka and Masterton, before the final leg through the Wairarapa, over Remutaka Hill, and into Wellington CBD. This was the part of the journey I was fearing the most.
Driving out of Featherston, a digital roadworks sign blinked “Warning, strong head winds”, followed by a sign reading “High risk route”.
Continuing on at full throttle, crawling up the hill in a line of lunatics on small scooters, I was scared to death but wasn’t going to quit.
The wind blew, turning my broad shoulders and large stomach into a sail. I leaned forward, cranked the accelerator and crawled along.
Fulcher later said it was the worst cross of Rimutaka Hill he had experienced in his four years completing the drive.
The peak slowly came into view, but the downhill ahead of me was just as twisting and terrifying.
Hawke's Bay Today reporter Jack Riddell at the finish line of the 2025 Jolly Good Chaps Napier to Wellington 50cc Scooter Charity Challenge. Photo / Jack Riddell
Arriving in Wellington I had never felt such joy. I honked and shouted support to confused-looking Wellingtonians as I hopped along the pothole-ridden streets of the city.
Speaking at the finish line on Saturday evening, Fulcher said the good chaps had raised $179,000 for this year’s challenge, taking the total amount raised over the last four years to over half a million dollars.
Jack Riddell is a multimedia journalist with Hawke’s Bay Today and spent the last 15 years working in radio and media in Auckland, London, Berlin, and Napier. He reports on all stories relevant to residents of the region.
