This year’s trek is a particularly special and sombre one, as participants mourn the loss of one of the champions of the trek, former Maori All Black, Hepa Paewai.
For the past 12 years, trek participants had travelled from Cape Reinga to Central Otago, completing annual legs of about 10 days’ trekking and travelling further south each year, The Great New Zealand Trek Charitable Trust chairman Wally Bell, of Hawke’s Bay, said.
This year, in the 13th year of the trek, participants were travelling from Ophir to Lawrence, and next year the trek would be completed, ending in Bluff, Mr Bell said.
He has completed 10 of the treks, some on horseback, the rest as a volunteer, and said there was a "great family atmosphere" to the event. Many participants returned each year and most were "hooked" as soon as they joined the trek.
This year 97 horse riders, 80 walkers and 38 mountain-bikers are taking part, as well as another 80 volunteers who travel in vehicles as support crews.
The trek covered some "beautiful" country, and organisers and participants were grateful to landowners for providing such generous access to their land, Mr Bell said.
He said this year the trek was bittersweet, as trek organisers and participants were still mourning the loss of one of the event’s main organisers.
Mr Paewai had been an integral part of the trek, which was started by Steve Old in 2006 and then organised by Mr Paewai’s partner, Kitty Johnson.
The couple had dedicated many years of their life to the trek, and the trekking community was devastated by Mr Paewai’s loss. He died last month.
Mr Bell paid tribute to the work of Mr Paewai and his partner Kitty, who again organised and took part in this year’s trek.This year’s trek began in Ophir yesterday and today will arrive at Matangi Station, near Alexandra.
It will then continue to Roxburgh tomorrow, have a rest day in Roxburgh on Wednesday, travel to Minzion Station on Thursday, to Beaumont on Friday and end in Lawrence on Saturday.The event raised money for multiple sclerosis (MS) research, Mr Bell said.
All funds raised went to MS research. The trek has raised almost $350,000 so far, $280,000 for the Malaghan Institute of Medical Research, which uses the money for its research to find a cure for MS, and the remainder to general MS research and awareness.
