Policeman hikes length of the country
Whangarei policeman Gary Hayes has completed a 3000-kilometre journey from one end of the country to the other raising awareness for the police charity Bluelight as he arrived in Bluff yesterday.
Making his way to the finish line of the Te Araroa Trail alongside children from Bluff School was an important part of what made the journey worthwhile, Hayes said.
Hayes was really tired coming up to the last part of the trail but coming up to Bluff School and seeing the smiles on the kids’ faces gave him the boost of energy he needed to carry on.
Bluelight had planned to hold events with schools in the South Island but with Hayes walking through during school holidays, a lot of them could not go ahead.
It made it special to incorporate Bluff School at the end of the journey, he said.
One of highlights of the trip that started in Cape Reinga in November was seeing all the small communities throughout New Zealand.
‘‘The Te Araroa trail is attracting people from all over the world to small isolated towns and villages and its decent people wanting to see New Zealand for what it really it is,’’ he said.
‘‘I’ve seen a large part of the country that, unfortunately, a lot of New Zealanders have not had the opportunity to see.’’
Hayes wanted to raise $3000, a dollar per kilometre for his efforts and his Givealittle page had reached $2022 at the time of completing the walk.
Although short of his financial target, the campaign had raised awareness that Bluelight as an organisation was still there, he said.
The charity works alongside the police to run activities for children. It celebrated its 35th anniversary last year, and a lot of people may remember Bluelight as it used to host school discos.
The point of the walk was to spread the message that Bluelight was still there, he said.
Bluelight in Invercargill had recently restarted and, hopefully, a lot of people in Southland would look into the activities they were trying to promote, he said.
‘‘I’ve seen a large part of the country that, unfortunately, a lot of New Zealanders have not had the opportunity to see.’’ Gary Hayes