NZ couple to visit Sri Lanka for charity project

A New Zealand couple seeks to raise money for a 1,500-kilometre charity biking venture circumnavigating Sri Lanka. Pete Oswald and Sophie Stevens plan to bike around the island to mark the 10th anniversary of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami and raise money for a preschool. They start their epic cycle trip exactly a decade after the tsunami that killed an estimated 230,000 people in 14 countries.

The time frame is 24 days to circle the island and visit the preschool, cycling an average of 63km a day.

The Karaveddy Pre-School in the Batticaloa region in the Eastern Province needs a rigid, watertight roof to replace its single-layer leaky tin and tarpaulin roof, which does not stand up to much in the monsoon season. Oswald and Stevens aim to raise $2,500 through charity Ocean Stars Trust, which was set up in 2005 to assist victims of the tsunami in Sri Lanka, and will be hosting an auction night in Queenstown.