Pat Magill, 93, prepares for what will likely be his last Unity Walk

Pat Magill, in the white T-shirt, leading a Walk for Unity in 2016. Photo / File

Veteran Napier social justice advocate Pat Magill could be striding out on his last Walk for Unity on Sunday — his 93rd birthday.

But the 30th annual walk since the inaugural hike from Taupo to Napier in 1990, is not about ageism nor "an ego thing", he says.

It's just that his doctor reckons Magill, who was awarded an OBE 41 years ago for his community service, shouldn't be doing any more.

"I've had the warning," he says.

Never intended to have major numbers, the walk generally attracted no more than 100 people, and Magill wants to make sure it keeps going.

Among this year's walkers will be New Plymouth social activist Andrew Judd, who in 2013 became mayor of New Plymouth with a 9000 vote landslide victory over the sitting mayor.

But he did not seek re-election in 2017, having during his three years had support by himself and his council for establishing a Maori ward roundly rejected in a public referendum.

Becoming a self-acclaimed "recovering racist", his calls for Maori to have half-representation on councils attracted considerable criticism but he maintained a stance concerned about addressing the wrongs of New Zealand's colonial past.

Magill, a former businessman, who was also a president of the Hawke's Bay Rugby Union at the time of the 1966-1969 Magpies' Ranfurly Shield era, joined Judd on the Parihaka hikoi of 2016.

Judd's three-day hikoi attracted more than 1000 people and the then-Mayor told a reporter: "It's been inclusive, it's been exciting, it's been emotional. It's been something we've been needing for a long time."

Confirming his plans for Sunday, Judd says he was a "late-comer" to understanding racial discrimination and wanting to do something about it.

He remembers he was 48 at the time, and says now: "It's about challenging people to look within themselves."

The Walk for Unity, which developed into a Unity Week, including a Unity Dinner, presentation of Pilot City Trust Awards and the Robson Lecture on social justice issues, has spread its view across ethnicities and cultures, including participation from ambassadors and other national representatives in New Zealand.

Sunday's walk will be from the Spirit of Napier fountain along the seafront to the area around the Clive Rowing Club, with a bus available to then take walkers to Kohupatiki Marae, for a presentation by Judd and entertainment.

A bus will also be available beforehand from Napier's Pukemokimoki Marae to the starting point.

The pathway route has a special meaning for Magill, who says: "When John Key or whomever started planning walking and cycleway who could have imagined that it could be an Outward Bound for kids who can't afford Outward Bound."

A feature of the walk will be a stop at Waitangi Reserve, where environmental protectionist Hinewai Ormsby will explain some of the steps taken to enhance nature in the area.

While it could be Magill's last Unity Walk, the well-travelled path he's trodden since the days of YMCA and youth-based volunteerism establishing the Downtown Y in Napier in the mid-1970s, he has a few moves to make yet.

It's taken him and others to international gatherings focusing on hardship and social justice and penal reform, much of it revolving around the Napier Pilot City Trust, established in 1986 with a focus on the city providing answers to its own social problems.

The trust is currently planning a Napier As a Child-Friendly City forum for November 20, coinciding with the United Nations Universal Children's Day.