Thank God I lived to see another Christmas. It took me 48 days to get from Bluff to Palmerston calling on over 600 businesses taking over 1000 photograhs and several hours of video footage. I’m looking forward to spending some quality time with my family during Christmas. In the new year I wil be back on the road again.
On my journey I don’t have time to explain to people what I am trying to acheive so I have put together some questions and answers and I hope you will learn from them
With every new challenge in life there is allways a price to pay. Whenever I tell people that I’m travelling from Bluff to Cape Reinga and back calling on every business and collecting their business cards they are amazed. People say to me how long will it take you and why do you want to do it. I’m doing it because it has never been done before and I love the challenge doing things no one else has ever done before but of course there is always a price to pay. In my case its a 4 letter word called work. The easy part of this journey is calling on all the busineses and picking up their cards the hard part is sitting in my office all day loading all the cards and photos on to my computer. It is not uncommon for me to get up at 3 am in the morning and work on my computer until 6 am and then go for a swim for an hour. After breakfast I’m back on the computer again. If you browse through the SH1 Directories you will see pages and pages of stuff and I have designed over many thousands of hours. I am already working 7 days a week with very little sleep. One day I worked it out that after paying all those who are currently making an income from SH1 Business Directories and if paid myself just $15 hour I would need to get $20 for every business I visit and load onto the internet.
Sorry folks no more Photos
The answer of course is to employ somone to do the computer work but I cant do that until I increase my income. What I have decided to do is stop putting photos online for each town until I get sponsors for each town. If people want me to promote their town then they will have to buy advertising on the SH1 Business directories or make a voluntary donation it is as simple as that. If you want me to continue writing travellers guide stories and put photos on this blog then you will have to advertise with me or send me a donation to pay for the cost. I have one more week on the road before Christmas and I will not be going on the road again until I find some people that believe enough in what I am doing to support me.
Donations
If you woud like to see me make it to Cape Reinga and back and promote each town along the way and write a book about it all then please make a donation ito my bank account with the National Bank 060 889 0257897 00
or post it to Ron & Margaret Bishop 132 Gleniti Road Timaru
Merry Christmas to you all and a very Prosperous new year
Ron E Bishop
Motivational Business Coach
Things were going pretty good for me really I had only had one puncture which meant I never had time to go swimming that morning.
I got the puncture after I had slept a couple of nights in a church and just before I nearly got put in jail for taking photos.
I would like to tell you these stories in more detail and show you some photos but there are only 7 days in a week and I dont have time. I could pay somone to help me but I dont get enough in donations.
Invercargill and Gore are online
All you Southland people are lucky because there is an Invercargill and a Gore page online. These pages have come to you with the compliments of the Coachmans Inn in Invercargill and Charlton Lodge in Gore and this is why we have written a story online about them.
Balclutha & Milton
There is some wonderful people in South Otago and they are some of the friendliest I have met on my journey so far. I have lots of interesting photos to show you and stories to tell you about Clutha and its people but unfortunatly I cannot share them with you just yet until I earn some more income. I called into Mosgiel an found 2 friendly business people who bought some advertising from me. Derek Payne of Paynes Wholsalers ltd sponsored a full page for Mosgiel so a home page will be going online soon.
Dunedin
I have never done much selling in Dunedin but I have been told it is a Salesmans graveyard. After calling on all the businesess along Crawford Street I soon found out why. Most of the businesses along SH1 in Dunedin are corporates and chain stores with their head office in the North Island or Australia. The staff that work in these places are not allowed to carry any cash to work with them and petty cash tins are a thing of the past so my idea of getting donations to pay for my travel expenses has stopped against a brick wall in Dunedin.
When I decided to travel from Bluff to Cape Reinga and back picking up business cards from all the businesses along SH1 and using them to build online phone books for every town I knew then that there would only be one thing that would stop me and that is money.
The first week of my journey I ran at a huge loss. I had spent lots of money on a fancy brochure and some business cards which turned out to be waste of money. In my fancy brochure I had praised Lands End in Bluff but I still failed in my attempt to give away $112.50 worth of advertising to them in return for a bed for the night. I paid the owners of Lands End Inn $150 for my first nights accomadation on the road.
My negotiating skills have improved from the experience and ever since then I have been successful in doing barter deals with accommadation places. So far on my journey I have stayed in 9 other different accomadation places and I have given away over $2000 worth of advertising in return for a bed and a pillow
No Free Lunches
Lunches are not cheap these days and it is very hard to find a free one.
In Invercargill one cafe owner gave me a free cup of coffee and a mufffin as a donation. A resturant owner gave me a $10 donation so to return the favour I went back there for dinner and it cost me $52 so the next night it was fish and chips on the beach. There are some kind people still about in Edendale a lady gave me free dinner and breakfast.
Donations have saved me.
Trying to sell advertising while calling on 40 to 50 businesses a day picking up business cards was impossible which is why I started asking for donations. I have been amazed at how generous some people are. I man who was a manager for a large company had no money in his petty cash tin so he reached into his wallet and gave me a $50 note. Another young man who had just started his business also gave me $50 note. It funny where money can come from we were sitting around having a beer one night and a man who I had only met for the first time pulled ot a $50 note and put it in front of me said take this I don’t need it. It is well known that corporate companies and chain stores have no money when it comes to giving back to the local community where they get their money from however I was moved with emotion when a young bank manager photocopied 25 colour copies of my newsletter free of charge. The young lady said I admire what you are doing and she gave me $15 from her own purse. The next bank manager gave me 20 cents for a copy of the newsletter their opposition bank had printed for free.
My travel expenses are averaging about $200 day which is a lot of money to raise from donations and I go to work each day with no pay.
Photographing the towns
My journey is not just about promoting the businesess its also about promoting the towns. My camera never stops in its search for things of interest to capture on my journey. I am building a collection of Photos that in years to come will fill the history books of tomorrow. All this I do at my own cost.
When I first saw this sign on the side of the road I thought what a stupid slogan. I had not been in Balclutha very long and I realised that the slogan was working.
Everyone I saw said hello and some even waved when they said hello. What a great place to live the people in Balclutha are by far the most friendliest people I have met on my journey and it is all because some clever person came up with simple slogan that works.
If it works in Balclutha the why would it not work in your town. Can you imagine how happy people would feel if everyone said hello. Try it on the person you have not spoken to since your last argument and you may be surprised at the reaction.
While I was in Balclutha I fell in love with a concrete bridge. This magnificent structure of arches straddles the Big Balclutha River. The Railway bridge further down is equally impressive.
The motor vehicle bridge has a walk bridge both sides of it and I just had to walk up one side and down the other. There is no pedestrian crossing at the northern end of the bridge and I very nearly became a piece of meat in the sandwich between the bridge and a Mac Truck.
It was then I decided that Balclutha could make a fortune from tourism if they built a pedestrian crossing on top of the concrete arches. Some may even want to bungy jump from it down into the river below.
I have a soft spot for old hotels and hate to see people not look after them. I stayed 3 nights in the Hotel South Otago and I loved the place. Like all these old hotels they have a certain charm that you don’t find in modern accommodation houses. The Hotel is owned by the Balclutha Licensing Trust and while they have done a great job in preserving the hotel downstairs the outside of the building and the accommodation rooms upstairs have been neglected.
Hotel South Otago is situated in the centre of the town and it should be the focal part of Balclutha but unfortunately its not. I left a note for the management staff of Balclutha’s greatest Icon and I hope that when I return to their town I will see big improvements.
One of the reasons I have taken on this challenge is to promote business and tourism in the towns that I call on. I also want to uplift and inspire other 69 year olds like myself that have a crook shoulder a gammy leg and two teeth missing on the bottom jaw that old age and arthritis is no barrier if you have a determined attitude and a good sense of humour.
I get no funding from Local or Central Government so I have to beg for my supper. I ask each business to give me a donation to pay for my travel expenses and by far the most generous people have been the business people of Balclutha. I will never forget the bank manager who photocopied 20 colour copies of my newsletter and then gave me some notes out of her own purse. Despite the generosity of people I still don’t have enough to buy a new pair of shoes. If you feel sorry for me and have not yet made a donation towards my cause but would like to you can do so. Just put it in my bank account online.
National Bank Timaru 060 889 0257897 00 or send your donation by post c/ Margaret Bishop 132 Gleniti Road Timaru New Zealand. Margaret is the women I married 45 years ago and she also has a crook leg a runny eye and a deaf ear. She often tells he friends thats its all right for you but I am the one that has to live with him.
Anyway I will let you know if Margaret gets enough money in donations to buy me a new pair of shoes. Keep tuned in because I have a good story to tell you about shoes next week.
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Cape Reinga
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