During his battle with stage four renal clear cell cancer, Rod Rutherford is cycling the length of New Zealand to raise money for cancer research.

The 59-year old Fonterra tanker driver from Tirau has been e-biking since February 8 where he started in Bluff, but has made his way all the way up to the Bay of Plenty, and will be cycling his way through Tauranga in the coming days.

Rod says that the idea of biking the length of New Zealand first came into his head during a dream he had one night.

'I had an amazing powerful dream. In the dream, I biked through the country and I was telling people that even when you have a glass half empty, it's still full, and it's good to be grateful and give thanks to life.

'I told my wife about that dream, and she said ‘well we don't even have a bike.'”

'After about eight weeks of keeping it to ourselves, I got given the bike. So I figured, I had the dream, I've got the bike, I might as well put my feet down and do the job.”

Rod says he has been winging the journey ever since, staying with where he can, eating what he can along the way.

Rod standing by the Footrot Flats statue in Gisborne. Supplied Photo.

'Sometimes I've got some place to stay. I met a couple in Norsewood who offered me a place to stay in Ōpōtiki. It all works out.”

Rod estimates that on the second or third week of July he will be able to complete his journey.

'I've been really enjoying the challenge of it. I wanted to leave something different of myself, and this is the way to do it.”

'I've raised about $5067 so far, and people have also donated money into my bank account for food and accommodation.

'My favourite spot so far has been in the Buller Gorge, with no phone coverage, nobody around me, nobody I can talk to, and I'm sitting alone with my own thoughts, thinking about my life.”

Supplied Photo.

Rod is documenting his journey on his Facebook page ‘Rod's Life Cycle', where he posts frequent updates and photos of his travels.

Rod says that his son in law, Lachlan Menzies, came up with the name of his Facebook page, and helped Rod set up his donation page for cancer research.

'I can't take the credit for that, he has helped me so much getting this started.”

Rod says that his cancer was diagnosed about 18 months ago.

'It was after a persistent cough. My wife asked me to go and get it checked out. I thought it might be Covid-19 at first and after going down that route we found out it was cancer.

'One night I was talking to her after work and everything went all pixelated. I thought, ‘that's not good.'”

Rod says he had a total of eight tumours, and is now down to four.

'I had four on my brain, one on my lungs, two on my ribs and one on my kidney. Two on my brain are healed up, the two on my ribs have healed up, the one on my lung is still there, the one on my kidney is still there, and I've got a new small one on my lung now.”

Rod says despite all of this, he is feeling good and is able to bike well, despite 'never being” an avid cyclist.

Supplied Photo.

Rod is travelling alone, meeting people along the way with his small bike trailer carrying his supplies in case has a flat tyre, needs a change of clothes, or has to set up his tent for the night.

For more information on Rod's journey and to follow his documented trip up the country, visit his Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/Rodsbikingadventure.

To donate to Rod's fundraiser to support cancer research at the Cancer Society, visit https://www.youcanforcancer.org.nz/rodslifecycle.