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Frank’s Journey Complete
Home Again after 22 days & 4598km
If you’re a BRM regular you would’ve seen a few news items about Frank Carter’s ride for charity which saw him reunited with the same bike he undertook missionary work in Papa New Guinea more than 30 years previously, in a bid to ride from Cape Rieanga to Bluff for. Well Frank’s just completed his journey and has issued the statement below.
Wow - what just happened!
Monday morning 30th November, we left Invercargill for Christchurch with overnight stop, then on to Picton where we overnighted again and caught the 10.05 am ferry for Wellington. The final dash - or should I say “splash”, as we headed for home, arriving 9.45 pm Wednesday night. Heavy rain all the way from Levin and continued overnight at home.
What a mess, everything unpacked out of the trailer and motorhome, stuff everywhere and the washing machine in top gear, dryer also as it was still raining. Peter and Geoff left the next morning heading further north, with Peter dropping Geoff off in Hamilton and continuing on to Auckland where he was due to start work that afternoon. Unfortunately, he sat down for a few minutes rest and didn’t wake up until about 6 - 7 hours later. We all suffered from that feeling, I am sure.
Noel took the Cruiser home saying he would clean it for us and he returned the next morning with it looking all neat and tidy. We are so grateful that he did that for us, (with help from Iris of course).
Troubled with trying to get back into a regular sleeping habit, waking up in the morning and still wondering where we are today, who is riding, where is the meeting tonight etc. Phew!!! Relief, we are at home. So, what do we start on next. Emails coming in that need answering, more washing and cleaning of vehicles. “Made it” to Sunday, calming down and enjoying the nice Tauranga sunshine finally.
What just happened?? We had visited and held main meetings at 12 centres, plus other stop-overs here and there to speak to media etc. The hospitality, organisation of meetings, arrangement of media people at nearly all centres, was ‘superb”, “fabulous”, we offer our sincere thanks to all who participated. In the words of André Crouch, “To God be the glory for the things He has done”.
How much was raised…….you ask! Money is still coming in, and it appears that we will get at least $40,000.00 with folk still asking about donating.
What do we feel? Joy, appreciation……………. but we are far short of the $750,000AUD needed to purchase another GA8 Airvan. We are still looking for God to supply this need and wondering how He is going to make it happen.
One of the emails waiting for us when we came home, was from PNG. It was from a Mr Sinclaire Solomon MBE, Sub-Editor of The National, Pacific Star Limited newspaper in Port Moresby. Mr Solomon was asking for a lot of information relative to the Ride to Fly and the need for a new MAF aircraft. He apparently had picked up the newspaper report from the Otago Daily Times and had included this in 2 previous issues of the paper. He felt he would like to put a more detailed article in their Weekender edition of the paper which is due for publication on 11th and 20th December. He was very sympathetic to the needs of MAF and felt that perhaps PNG could contribute to the costs of the new Airvan somehow.
You may like to check out the following web site next week to follow this story. http://www.thenational.com.pg <http://www.thenational.com.pg/>
Now how about this for a nice ending to “The End of the Road” story.
On the way up from Christchurch we arranged to stop at Blenheim to see the Omaka Heritage Aircraft Museum. Peter Hansen from Nelson, said he would like to meet us there. I had never met Peter before, but had probably mentioned him as being the man who had found the DOT motorcycle in PNG and shipped it back to NZ. He gave me a photo of the DOT as it was when he found it in Tari, PNG, and just before he crated it for shipping. The photo was for customs purposes back in NZ and only had the engine and gearbox sitting in place. It was then totally dismantled to put into a crate. Peter then said, “I have something else to give you”, and with that he handed me another packet. As soon as I felt it, I realised what it was. Believe it or not, it was the original licence plate that we’d needed to purchase in 1965 and was one of the first pre-Independence T-PNG registrations. (Territory of Papua and New Guinea). How great was that!
So, the Ride to Fly and the End of the Road story comes to an end. DOES IT?
A special thanks to all those bikers who rode with us on different sections of the journey from Cape to Bluff. You were all ‘angels’. This also includes all who came on the Drury / Waihi / Tauranga leg. The Redeemed are a great bunch of people. We love you all.
Thank you everyone, from the Ride to Fly Team and MAF NZ
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