Finn Egan is taking a couple of rest days - and a chance to swap his worn-out boots - at his grandmother's home in Whanganui.
A 23-year-old New Zealander is walking the length of the country to support women and children in Papua New Guinea.
Finn Egan, who has family ties to Whanganui, is doing the Te Araroa Trail to help fund a women's refuge in Kokopo. His journey, '2000 Miles for PNG Women', started
on August 19 and he hopes to finish by Christmas, averaging about 30km per day.
"I volunteered in PNG for 18 months with Volunteer Service Abroad and after I came back to New Zealand I had about six months before I start my post-graduate studies," Egan said.
"I had been tossing up doing the Te Araroa Trail so I thought 'right, let's just do it'. One of the other volunteers in PNG was raising money for the women's refuge and I thought the walk was a good platform to raise awareness and find connections in New Zealand who could help them out in the long term.
"Violence, particularly against women and children, is prevalent in PNG. About 70 per cent of women will experience some form of violence in their lifetime. I could see some parallels with New Zealand but in PNG the violence is often in public, not hidden as it often is in New Zealand."
