Life with T1
BIKING THE OLD GHOST ROAD There is a particular breed of people that enjoys biking 85 kilometres, slogging it out over three hot days on advanced grade five trails. We meet Sue Paterson who did such a trail last summer.
F
ifty-five-year-old New Plymouth local Sue Paterson says she never thought she would do the Old Ghost Road. She knew it was infamous for being a difficult and technical track, but also appreciated that it was set within a glorious part of the West Coast. Situated in the Kahurangi National Park, the track starts at Lyell, an old gold mining town where the only remaining marker is the cemetery. The track itself is a long-forgotten gold miner’s road that has been revived as a mountain biking and tramping trail, administered and maintained by a non-profit organisation. It takes two to three days on a bike and four to five days by foot.
Each year, Sue and her husband Dean take their campervan from New Plymouth down to the South Island for an explore. On one of those trips, her husband cajoled her into biking to the first hut of the track so she could see how beautiful the area really is. Sue spent the first three and a half hours almost continually heading uphill, but once she arrived and recovered something clicked, and before too long the couple had booked their hut accommodation for the following year. THEN CAME THE PLANNING
Already fit, Sue thought she would do an internet search on the best exercises for cycling and it came up
If you are new to multi-day bike journeys and would like to embark on one, then remember to first talk to your specialist doctor or nurse.
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DIABETES WELLNESS | Summer 2023
