Tale of the century - Napier's Pat Magill walks again

There's no place better than Napier, reckons Pat Magill, with Ahuriri Estuary across the road from home. Photo / Paul Taylor

It's six years since Pat Magill had his longest day out, a 32km walk down Ninety Mile Beach, at the age of 89.

Two years ago he was on Unity Walk number 30, saying it was his last, saying the doctor had told him.

But on October 3 he'll be walking again, on a hikoi celebrating a bit of newer thinking in local-body circles amid the planning for Maori Wards representation at the Council tables, and, oh, the anniversary four days earlier – his 95th birthday.

The trek will only be a kilometre or so – the Marine Parade from Sale St to the Soundshell is the current plan – but Magill says this will be his last.

When it comes to the directions from a medical practitioner, followers, including daughter Jess who this year published Pat Magill – Leading from the Front, now in its third reprint, would say "That's Pat", not the sort of bloke to be told what he was doing, or wasn't.

But he does, again, say the gig next month will be the last hurrah of his public walks, which date back a long time, including the first Unity Walk from Taupo to Napier in 1990.

Pat Magill is about to embark on his final Unity Walk, until the next one. Photo / Paul Taylor

At his home on Meeanee Quay, Westshore, overlooking the sun-drenched Ahuriri Estuary on Day 1 of Covid-19 Level 2, 2021, his claim that there's no place better to be than Napier is unchallengeable.

But after more than 60 years on the social justice wagon he still aspires to do better, to have Napier held on high as the great champion community not too big to learn about itself and resolves its own issues.

"Colonisation," says the former businessman who was also president of the Hawke's Bay Rugby Union in the 1960s, "is not just a word. It's a series of negative impacts which are still with us today, and if we don't fix them then there is no hope."

Uppermind is the housing crisis, which he says escalated from the time of the large-scale demolition and removal of state housing about 8-10 years ago, and brought a range of negative consequences.

Current figures highlight the negatives, with numbers of Maori on the "housing register" having leapt at many times the rate for other ethnicities.

He wants the dehomed and the homeless among those there for the hikoi, and says: "We've got to keep trying. We are still alive, and Napier is a great place."