Rod

Pilot Rod, who is originally from Wellington, now lives in Havelock North.

He joined CWA Napier after learning about us from Carmen, a Rest Home Activity Coordinator in Napier who knew that he had ridden tandems with his wife for many years. He says it’s been a great “come back” as he had not been on a bike in recent years. He is very happy and satisfied to be piloting passengers and enjoys it a lot.

Cycling has certainly played a big part in Rod’s life and back in 1998/9 he cycled from Auckland to Wellington, non-stop in about 22 hours. Apparently this was the thing to do then, with the fastest time being about 18 hours.

Rod had a bike shop for many years, but it’s not just cycling Rod likes. He is also a Formula One and MotoGP fan too. He has been “into” motor bikes all his life and at 15, while still in school, got his first bike, a Yamaha YA6, (which he still has), excited that this bike introduced the first autolube and electric start.

Rod is also talented at drawing, skilled at cross stitch, and his favourite colour is purple, as is his Phantom outfit, coming from his long fascination with the Phantom comic strip character.

Rod’s first reply about his favourite meal is “spag on toast”, but then also added “a Sunday roast too”, so we can tell he is a real traditional kiwi. We hope Rod’s dinner guests enjoy the kiwi fare, as they are from Texas, California, Italy and Spain. As his favourite music genre is Rock and Roll, one of his dinner guests would be Buddy Holly, and the others …Clint Eastwood, Valentino Rossi (an Italian racing driver and nine-time Grand Prix motorcycle racing World Champion) and his fourth dinner guest would be Miguel Induráin, the Spanish professional road racing cyclist who won the Tour de France 5 times consecutively, 1991-1995 and who had a resting heart rate of 28 – amazing. That would truly be a dinner of champions! Welcome Rod to the CWA Napier Team.