Community Gem: James Divine raises funds with monster cycle

Otumoetai College students support their teacher James Divine who cycled around the East Cape for charity. Photo / Supplied

James Divine has run 11 marathons and wanted a new challenge - this time on two wheels.

So the 47-year-old accepted a mission to cycle nearly 980km around the East Cape after a colleague told him, "runners make good cyclists".

But the Otumoetai College school teacher didn't just want to cycle for the sake of it; he wanted to do something for the community.

Another colleague suggested raising funds for the Graeme Dingle Foundation, particularly Project K which builds the confidence of Year 10 students, teaches life skills, promotes good health and encourages positive attitudes.

He rode for nine days and a total of 978km - his efforts raised $800 for the charity.

"I wanted to do something that would inspire and motivate young adults to make goals and achieve them," he said.

Divine said he came up with the idea at the end of last year.

"I always set sporting goals for myself," he said. "I love adventure sports. But I never had the opportunity to do it until the end of last year."

He set off from his Mount Maunganui home after Term 1 ended and cycled for nine days of the school holidays at an average of 108km per day.

"I met a lot of nice Kiwis and saw some amazing scenery," Divine said. "And I got lucky with the weather."

One of his favourite places to stop was "a darling little spot" for wine tasting at Eskdale - a rural settlement 20km northwest of Napier.

"That is the beauty of doing this is you get to discover little gems," he said.

Divine carried 25kg on the back of his bike and 15kg on the front.

He fuelled his body with mostly canned foods, bread rolls, salami, a few bananas, snack bars "and plenty of paracetamol".

Most of the ride went smoothly. However, there was one navigation hiccup in the middle of the ride when he needed some help.

It was day six on the Napier/Taupo Highway when he realised he needed help after reaching 115km-120km and was still not at his destination for the night.

"You get instructions from Google which tell you to go left, right, left, right and I could see myself getting lost so I thought I would stick to the highways," Divine said.

"It was getting late, and I saw the road I was supposed to take, and I knew I had to get off the highway to get to the DoC campsite, but I kept going."

His flashlight was also running out of charge, so he flagged down a motorist who gave him a lift to the campsite.

Divine also managed to cycle the last part of his trip with a broken spoke.

Dan Allen-Gordon said the funds would go towards Project K students at Otumoetai College.

"Most teachers want a break in the school holidays, but he decided to raise funds for us," Allen-Gordon said.