Last Friday (April 19) Rebecca Wardell arrived in Lake Hawea on her bike. But unlike the many other cyclists frequenting Hawea and its surrounds, the arrival for Rebecca marked the end of the biggest journey of her life - a 20,000km trip from Switzerland to New Zealand.

“It felt very surreal to be cycling into Hawea after having thought about it for such a long time,” Rebecca said.

Rebecca, who is now recuperating in Lake Hawea, arrived in town almost exactly a year after setting off from Lake Geneva, Switzerland, where she and two friends had hatched the plan for a cycling trip of a lifetime.

Aiming to raise $20,000 (one dollar per kilometre) for the Forward Foundation, Rebecca, a former Olympian, set off with her two friends Emma Twigg and Sarah van Ballekom. Nineteen countries and countless stories later, Rebecca is all done - and locals have the opportunity to hear about her adventure at a talk at the Hawea Community Centre tonight (Tuesday April 23).

The trip was “full of surprises,” Rebecca said. “We didn’t really know what we were letting ourselves in for. The hardest parts were things like bad road conditions, weather and finding somewhere to sleep. Many of the places we went didn’t have hotels or accommodation and we would sleep on the side of the road or on a shop floor.”

The trip included more than 1,000 hours on the bike seat, and climbing mountain passes higher than 4500m. As an athlete (she competed in the heptathlon at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing), Rebecca was perhaps better prepared than most, but the adventure was still tough at times.

Her favourite country from the trip was Tajikistan, where “the scenery was a bit like Central Otago but on a massive scale”. Rebecca said the people there were the poorest but also the most generous. “They had so little but they were offering us beds and having us to stay.”

While the generosity of strangers was perhaps most prominent in Tajikistan, the kindness people showed was incredible throughout the trip, Rebecca said. “People would stop on the side of the road and bring us food. Some people would find us a house to stay in, have us in, feed us - so many people were so hospitable and kind.”

Having surpassed the $20,000 fundraising goal for the Forward Foundation (which helps empower girls to reach their potential through sport and leadership opportunities), any surplus funds will be donated to Victim Support for the Christchurch shooting victims. Rebecca said up to 75 per cent of her trip was through Muslim communities. The people were extraordinary, she said, and this was her small way to give back. Donate here.

Learn more about Rebecca’s extraordinary journey tonight at the Hawea Community Centre. The event will begin at 7pm and will include stories, imagery from the trip and a Q&A session. Entry is free.

PHOTO: Supplied