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Rob Reynish and Mark Shadbolt and three other cyclists will be biking 90km in August to raise money for Canterbury West Coast Air Rescue.
Their reasons are personal, with the pair wanting to give back to the service which has saved both their lives.
They will ride from French Farm to the GCH Aviation Air Rescue Base on August 16 as part of the Canterbury West Coast Air Rescue Trust’s Back to Base Challenge.
The group aptly named Rob Reynish’s Peninsula Peddlers is made up of himself, Shadbolt, Ben Hart, Andrew Moon and Andrew Harris.
Reynish remembers all too well the boat crash that left him trapped in October 2022, with water rising around him.
“Water was up to my chest. My friend Dick was with me and he was doing an amazing job holding my head out of the water. I remember going down all the time and him pulling me out,” Rob says.
The friends were boating down Broken River, a tributary of the Waimakariri River, when their boat hit a submerged rock and was flung into a cliff face.
The boat then was carried downstream until it became wedged on a tree and immediately started filling with water.
Friends in the boat behind set off a personal locator beacon. When the Westpac Rescue Helicopter crew arrived, they immediately knew the situation was serious.
Critical care paramedic Kath Copland was winched down into the boat. She had to submerge herself underwater to free Rob’s broken leg, which was trapped beneath the dashboard.
In a complex manoeuvre, the crew used the helicopter to winch Rob backwards and up into the helicopter.
Reynish has no doubt the crew saved his life. What he didn’t know was that three years later, the Westpac Rescue Helicopter would save him again after he suffered a stroke.
“My whole side was gone,” he said.
“The Westpac Rescue Helicopter saved me again. They got me to hospital in time to receive the clot-busting drugs and I’ve fully recovered. The stroke did give me terrible flashbacks to the jet boat accident. It took a long time to feel like I was back to normal,” he said.
The ride’s starting point is particularly poignant for Shadbolt who was picked up by the Westpac Rescue Helicopter from his home at French Farm in January 2022. He suffered a relapse of the bacterial infection leptospirosis.
“I won’t say it was life or death, but it was close enough,” he said.
The rescue helicopter got Shadbolt to Christchurch Hospital in about 12 minutes – a much quicker response than the hour and a half trip by car.
While he has always admired the rescue helicopter service, he said it means even more to him since experiencing it firsthand.
“It was amazing how quickly the rescue helicopter got to me, landing right next to my house. It’s an incredible service and a real life-saver in a lot of cases.”
When he heard about Reynish’s Back to Base fundraising ride, he knew he had to get on board.
“Raising money for the rescue helicopters is one of the most important fundraisers to be involved in,” he said.
While Hart has not been inside a rescue helicopter, he experienced a fixed wing air ambulance service after coming down with sepsis while on holiday in Queenstown.
“These rescue services are very close to my heart, and the rescue helicopter crews do an incredible job 24/7. We hear the rescue helicopter overhead often here in Akaroa — it’s a real lifeline.”
In the first six months of 2026, the Westpac Rescue Helicopter has flown to Banks Peninsula 21 times.