By JOHN YELD
Tramping the length of New Zealand is not an entirely original idea.
Although there may have been earlier attempts, the first to seize the public imagination was that of publishing pioneer A.H. Reed, who at the age of 85 completed an epic walk from North Cape to Bluff between
September 1960 and April 1961.
Reed kept to the roads, which is not the aim of Te Araroa. But it hopes to rekindle the emotional response to the octogenarian's extraordinary feat by promoting the modern version of his journey:
As one account of his walk reads: "An 85-year-old's journey entered New Zealand's heart. People clapped him through, brought him cups of tea, waved and tooted from cars, screeched to a halt by the entire busload. And along the route, class after class of schoolchildren were gathered for compulsory, but unforgettable, immersion in the eerie spell cast by this old, gaunt giant of early hiking."
In the mid-1970s, the Federated Mountain Clubs resurrected the idea of a foot trail the length of the country.
And when the New Zealand Walkways Commission was established under the wing of Lands and Survey in 1976, developing a trail became a priority.
But the commission ceased to function effectively when the Department of Conservation (DoC) was established in 1987, and was technically abolished when the Walkways Act of 1990 gave control of tramping tracks to DoC.
The commission had established more than 100 walkways, although not within the context of a continuous north-south trail.
And while DoC acknowledged the continued existence of the long-trail project in its 1995 Walkway policy, it had other priorities for its limited resources, and did not officially pursue the concept.
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