Tuktuk adventure to boost Miriam Centre

SLOW GOING: Contestants in a previous Rickshaw Run cross a rickety bridge. PHOTO/THE ADVENTURISTS RICKSHAW RUN

A Far North police officer wants to help sex abuse victims by riding a tuktuk the length of India.

Senior Constable Tracee Knowler, the sole charge officer at Houhora, New Zealand's northernmost police station, spent the previous 12 years as a detective in Kaitaia helping to lock away some of Northland's most notorious sex offenders.

Now she wants to help the victims with an unusual fundraiser which involves driving a three-wheeled motorised rickshaw 3500km through India.

All money raised will go to the Miriam Centre, a Whangarei-based organisation providing support and counselling for abuse victims.

Ms Knowler said contestants in the Rickshaw Run would start in the north Indian city of Shillong on August 6 and had until August 22 to reach Cochin in the south by any route they chose.

"It is a race, but the ultimate aim is to get there in one piece," she said.

Ms Knowler will be joined by Sergeant Marie Stratford of Manukau police. The pair are calling their entry Chickshaw Blues and are paying their own travel costs, about $8000 in total, so every cent donated will go to the cause.

They were hoping to raise as much as $70,000 in donations via the givealittle.co.nz website. If they hit their target, it would pay for a full-time counsellor in the Far North for a year and a half.

Ms Knowler chose the Miriam Centre after being impressed by its work with victims and perpetrators of sexual and physical abuse. She had specified the money raised would be used to help sex abuse victims in the Far North, and the centre had promised to show how the money had been spent.

The pair had considered a number of fundraisers but settled on the Rickshaw Run because it was both challenging and affordable. They expected bad roads and frequent breakdowns, but they were "reasonably practical Kiwi girls" and determined to finish the race.

The race organisers describe the tuktuk as a ''seven-horsepower glorified lawnmower'' and, somewhat ominously, ''possibly the least suitable vehicle on the planet for covering the entire subcontinent in two weeks.''

Ms Knowler also hoped to turn the odyssey into an educational opportunity. She planned to talk to children at the five schools in her area about the trip and, more importantly, keeping themselves safe and who to turn to for help.

While sexual abuse was rife in the Far North it was not necessarily worse than anywhere else, but the small size of the community meant it could be hard for victims to ask for help.

Cases Ms Knowler has been involved with include paedophile teacher James Parker, who was jailed indefinitely last year.

Ms Knowler and Ms Stratford got to know know each other during a police deployment to Bougainville.

* To donate, go to the Chickshaw Blues Facebook page or givealittle.co.nz (search for 'ChickshawBlues'). Cheques can be sent to Chickshaw Blues, 11 Lamb Rd, Pukenui. All donations will go the Miriam Centre, but businesses are welcome to contribute to travel costs as well.