“I don’t do sport,” says Wellington fashion guru Penny Barnett, who never has. But suddenly she does. She’s become a cyclist. From her cottage in Martinborough she has become involved with former horsewoman Catriona Williams, and her Catwalk charity for spinal injuries.
This year Williams is off to do the New York marathon in her handcycle, which is propelled entirely by upper body and arm strength, along with around 25 others who’ve entered the marathon on behalf of the charity.
“I’ve become one of her ‘wing men’,” says Penny who is well known as the long time face and inspiration behind the Designer Clothing Gallery in Thorndon Quay, “because although Catriona was originally just training around her home property, she’s now pretty fit and often travels more than 30 kilometres on the open road during her workouts. She likes people around for encouragement, but more to keep her low lying handcycle visible and safe from passing cars.”
“It’s pretty hard to say no to Cat when she asks you to come riding.  Cat manoeuvred me into a team for a small triathlon with Buzz, her father in law.   Making the buzzy bee costumes was the easy part;  I wished I wasn’t so visible because I struggled to keep up the pace, walking once out of sight, and stumbling finally to the line”.
“So I’ve become a cyclist but I’m no fashion image for cycling and I can’t be doing with all that lycra. I just grabbed some old clothes and jumped on my bike…and there was nothing fashionable about that either…we found it in a ditch.
“But now I’m very fortunate and I have been given a very cool Sarah Ulmer bike to use, so maybe I look the part a little more.
“It’s certainly a job worth doing. Eight of us were riding along with Catriona the other day, all in single file, when - on a blind spot with yellow dotted lines - a mad motorist nearly wiped us out.
“I can’t remember when I’ve been so angry - or fit.”
Barnett is off to the great New York event this week. She laughs: “I’ll be in charge of shopping.”