The intrepid travels of Christine and Ron Blake - SNN April 2023

SPINAL NETWORK NEWS 19
“You Just Watch Us!”
The intrepid travels and adventures of Christine and Ron Blake.
GREAT MATES—Christine and Ron Blake have enjoyed some incredible experiences together.
It was a day much like any other in 2009 for
avid recreational divers Ron and Christine
Blake as they excitedly packed and prepared
their boat for their three-week holiday.
They were heading to the Bay of Islands with friends. It
was picture perfect on their first day, as they started out
on their trip boating out to their favourite dive spot in the
remote Mokohinau Islands, 100km northeast of
Auckland. Arriving at the site, Christine and Ron entered
the water while their friend Ian manned the boat.
Twenty minutes into the dive Christine felt something
was not quite right. She signalled to Ron that she was
heading back up. Christine was becoming increasingly
dizzy as she arrived at her safety stop just below the
surface. Ian was immediately alerted when seeing her fins
surfacing first as opposed to her head, knew something
was wrong. Bobbing listlessly, Christine found that she
had no sensation in her legs, and no strength in her arms
as she slowly started to sink. Her recollection was “I knew
I was going to drown but surprisingly it wasn’t scary.” Ron
surfaced beside her and stopped her descent by inflating
her buoyancy compensator device (BCD). With Ian’s help,
—Christine Blake
I knew I was going to drown
but surprisingly it wasn’t scary.
Ron managed to lift Christine back onto the boat.
Christine has little recollection of those moments on the
boat. After a while, the coast guard and helicopter arrived
winching her up and on board before flying her to North
Shore hospital.
Initial indications were that Christine had suffered a
stroke. However, an MRI scan revealed a very severe case
of decompression sickness known as the bends.
The bends occur as a diver surfaces and nitrogen bubbles
form in their blood and tissues. This had compromised
her spinal cord. Christine’s condition was so severe that
she underwent 10 days in a de-compression chamber at
the Devonport Naval Base, where she breathed pure
oxygen to assist in restoring normal blood flow to in turn
restore function to her limbs.

NEW ZEALAND SPINAL TRUST 20
FEATHERY FRIENDS—Christine visited Antarctica in 2014, which was an incredible experience.
Christine subsequently found herself at the Auckland
Spinal Rehabilitation Unit. I was thinking “I’m going to be
fine” and being a woman of dogged determination, she
threw herself into physio and her rehabilitation. “I was
totally focused on it. I’d get up at 6am in the morning,
much to the annoyance of the staff," she laughs. Not
wanting to be the cause of annoyance, she brokered a
reciprocal agreement with the nursing staff providing
them with computer lessons in the evenings. Christine
relished the pool sessions—loving the water and
swimming but there was an unfortunate clash at times
with her doctor’s appointments. With her priorities
determined, she’d duly turn up for swimming lessons,
advising the pool instructors her doctor’s appointment
had been delayed.
Christine at the time of her accident was at the height of
her career, managing together with Ron their own very
successful adventure travel business. Six weeks after
arriving home from four months in the spinal unit and
navigating a new life as a paraplegic, Christine and Ron set
off on an overseas trip of their own. Air New Zealand had
kindly upgraded tickets for flights to Vancouver, and they
planned to join a cruise in Vancouver despite caution from
those around them. They were determined to complete the
holiday they didn’t have (Christine’s accident occurred on
the first day of their holiday). “We had a really good time,”
Christine says nonchalantly “we just kept going from
there.” Christine has a mind and determination of steel
and is very much in charge of her destiny with the support
of her equally determined husband.
Christine brushes off the challenges with a good dose of
humour, describing some of the challenges she faced on
the cruise from Vancouver. She describes an incident of
heading back to her room on the lower deck, pushing the
button on the lift only to discover, as she wheeled across
Christine and Ron carry
three things with them, a
good sense of humour, a high
degree of adaptability, and
an ability to remain calm.
the elevator bay, the doors closing in front of her. This
process repeated itself three or four times before she
finally caught the lift. Arriving back at the top deck nearly
30 minutes later she is greeted by Ron asking, “what took
you so long?” She then describes the challenge of what
had happened, and they both share a laugh and carry on
enjoying their trip. “Things just take longer” she says.
One thing that wasn’t anticipated however was the
reactions of other tourists. On a subsequent cruise to
Antarctica in 2014, a fellow passenger exclaims, “I didn’t
realise they took people like you on these trips?” Fighting
back a reaction Christine decided a measured approach
was in order by biding her time—knowing they were both
not leaving this ship any time soon. Sure enough, three
days later the ship hit rough seas, and not partial to
sickness, Christine was hoisting herself up the railings of
the stairs to the bridge to “get a better view of the waves
crashing over the bow” where she encountered the
woman again on the stairs of the narrow companionway.
As the woman was gingerly and slowly coming down and
looking very green Christine seized the moment by saying
“see you’re just like me after all.” “We became friends
after that," Christine chimes. They went on to explore the

SPINAL NETWORK NEWS 21
I didn’t realise they took
people like you on these
trips? I had to fight to
hold back a reaction.
—Christine Blake
icy expanse of Antarctica, visiting Scott's Hut with the
assistance of adaptive wheels with specially fitted casters
and skis, gifted to her by a Swedish inventor. After an
initial stop to socialize with the local penguins, Christine
navigated steep paths to reach Shackleton's Hut, with help
from Ron and another passenger who insisted on helping.
As exhilarating as international travel is, it was to be only
a precursor to a new level of adventure travel—to cycle
New Zealand’s iconic cycle trails! Cycling the Otago Rail
Trail was a dream of Ron’s brother Les who was facing
terminal cancer. So in 2015 as a family, they embarked on
the trip sharing precious unforgettable times together.
Christine, with Trikes New Zealand’s support, hired a
hand trike with power assist. Christine enjoyed the power
assist feature so much that her enthusiastic use of it
exhausted the battery resulting in her having to manually
hand crank for 3km. Sadly, Les passed away one year
later, having fulfilled his dream, and fuelled Christine’s
adventurous nature in the process. It started a new
chapter of adventures that she continues to enjoy.
Christine and Ron have gone on to complete the Dunstan,
Northland to Napier, Old Ghost and Old Coach Trails to
name a few. The Alps to Ocean trail is also in their sights
to complete this April after an initial partial attempt. “I
wouldn’t say it is always easy to do. You’ve got to
improvise. Navigating gates which are narrow and cattle
grates which are not passable without lifting the trike
over. It can be challenging dealing with steep sections of
track and switchbacks.”
All of this would not be possible without the unwavering
and dogged support of Ron. Assisting Christine without
compromising her independence. When faced with the
reactions of travel operators to their travel plans with
statements of “this is not suitable for someone with a
disability” Ron’s response is “you just watch us!”
Knowing travel can test the patience of most of us,
Christine and Ron carry three things with them, which
require ‘no baggage allowance.’ A good sense of humour, a
high degree of adaptability, and an ability to remain
calm. Preparation and planning, of course, are always key
so “do your homework” says Christine.
Her attitude to travel in spite of the challenges as a
paraplegic is inspirational. “You always have to think of
other people…they don’t know” further adding “it’s a case
of enlightening them. The more you’re out there, the more
people see you, they will be more understanding. Then,
more people with disabilities will go out, it’s perpetual.”
Christine’s next dream is to do a ‘bike and barge’ trip
through Europe. And so, while Christine and Ron go
about doing what they’ve always done, in their
characteristic unflappable fashion, their influence on
those around them tour operators, fellow tourists, and
cyclists alike, model what is truly possible with an
appetite for adventure, a dogged determination and a
good dose of Kiwi ingenuity.
DETERMINED—Have bike, will travel. Christine and Ron always look at what they can do, not what they can’t.