A peace campaigner walking the length of the North Island is passing through Tauranga.
Ian Upton, who arrived in Tauranga on Monday, started his march from Cape Reinga on May 5. He expects to arrive at Parliament in Wellington on June 28.
There he planned to submit a petition to the Government calling for billions budgeted for national defence to be redirected into social welfare organisations.
Mr Upton said he walked about 31km a day and had worked out it would take him a minimum of 840,348 steps to reach Parliament.
He arrived in Tauranga via the Kaimai Range. He had suffered his first minor injury of the hikoi - a leg strain - while clambering along the outside of a rail bridge.
Tauranga was not the most direct route down the island, but he has a son here he wanted to visit.
Today he will head south towards Rotorua.
Some nights he has spent with friends, other nights he has just knocked on strangers' doors and asked permission to tent in their yards, he said.
Mr Upton has walked the length of the New Zealand before, setting off in 1991 in support of the introduction of the MMP electoral system.
Mr Upton said this protest march was planned for two years, and was inspired by Costa Rica, whose president abolished its armed forces in 1948.
"I would like to envision New Zealand being like that."
He believed defence money would be far better spent on work such as that carried out by the 1000 Days Trust, which supports children through their first 1000 days of life.