Add "university students" to "road trip" and the result is usually debauchery.
Yet Otago University undergraduates Kate Medlicott and Tim Geaney have bucked the trend, first by ditching the transport, then by ditching almost all the alcohol.
Between walking the length of the country to "step out against the sexual exploitation ofchildren", the two admit to sinking the occasional cold ale - but that's where the comparison with fellow students ends.
One-and-a-half months into a 2300km journey on foot, and sporting a tan they could only dream of in Dunedin, the two hit Hawke's Bay in cloudy 20C heat yesterday.
"This has been the sunniest place we've walked by far," Mr Geaney, 22, told Hawke's Bay Today.
"The 'other' North Island coast was terrible."
The couple's ambitious hike for a cause was formed after 21-year-old Ms Medlicott, a social work student, was moved by an interview with a psychologist on the issue of child prostitution. "I just can't bear the thought of innocent children having their lives robbed from them," Ms Medlicott said. She then roped her physical education student boyfriend into joining her for a 82-day varsity holiday-hike from Bluff to Cape Reinga.
Raising awareness was as important as raising money, she said.
"We know it's not what most of our university friends will be doing during the holiday," Ms Medlicott said. "In fact I don't enjoy getting their texts telling us what they're up to."
In an effort to stem the constant din of traffic the two spend most of their days listening to audio books via their iPods.
"We've gone through a lot of books ... we do have our moments, so the quiet listening means we get to zone out and do our own thing for a bit."
Family and support crews throughout the journey had fed, watered and "generously supported" the couple in their quest.
The two arrived in Hastings yesterday and will today head to Napier.
"We had Christmas and Boxing Day off which was nice. We're doing the same for New Year's, which we're planning to spend in Napier."
The trek was expected to end at Cape Reinga on February 4, just two weeks before the start of their fourth year at university.
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