Mr Gourlie (62), of Dunedin, and Mr Koike (26), of Japan, are cycling the length of New Zealand, conducting research for the Dunedin Multi-Ethnic Council, which ultimately hopes to use their observations to create a document containing initiatives aimed at making New Zealand's roads safer for all users.
"As chairman of the multi-ethnic council, we're aware that a lot of the accidents on New Zealand roads are with new New Zealanders and also with visitors,'' Mr Gourlie said.
"So we can either continue to blame them for the accidents, or we can put a multilingual document together ... that will be of value for the whole country.''
Mr Gourlie hoped the document would be supported by the Government and used by government organisations such as the New Zealand Transport Agency and the New Zealand education system.
The pair, who began their journey last Friday in Bluff, arrived in Dunedin yesterday.
They planned to reach Cape Reinga by mid-March.
During their journey, Mr Gourlie said they would be looking at traffic patterns, how drivers responded to certain situations, and the condition of roads.‘
"We're doing gentlemanly hours, if you like. So we're not trying to do it in a hurry.
"What we're wanting to do is make a cultural shift from a rugby attitude on the roads, to one of sharing - more of a whanau/family attitude, where we all have a responsibility while on the road, rather than a right to be on the road.
"The majority of us, from what we've seen so far, drive like that [responsibly]. But every now and then - this morning, for example, we saw somebody with a trailer carrying a boat, overtaking a truck into a blind corner.
"For the truck driver, for all of us watching, that was really terrifying. What if there had been a blowout or a driver coming the other way?''
The observations gathered would be added to information they had learnt from their recent experiences riding the length of Japan, Mr Gourlie said.
The pair would raise funds during their journey to help pay for the creation of their multilingual road safety document, he said.
