Community gym in Hastings struggling to find new premises

Hikoi 4 Life founder Les Hokianga needs new premises to continue helping the community. Photo / Duncan Brown

A community gym and wellness centre that helps people combat obesity and other health related issues is fighting to stay open.

Community gym Hikoi 4 Life in Hastings is at 500 Maraekakaho Rd with Choices, Kahungunu Health Services - which has already found a building elsewhere.

Founder Les Hokianga said that over the past eight months the gym had been looking for another venue that could house its 75 netball teams and about 2500 community members, but had so far failed to find anything.

He said the gym was unable to get a two-year extension for the building, which has been sold and will be used for veterinary purposes from July. The gym needs to move out in May at the latest.

If it cannot move into another building, Mr Hokianga said, the gym will be forced to shut down.

"It is absolutely vital for the community."

The kaupapa (philosophy) behind the gym is to be not only a gym, but also a community centre - a place where people can go and feel comfortable and safe, achieve their fitness and all without breaking the bank.

"We don't want to be rich, we just want our community to have a facility that enables our families in society to effectively heal themselves through physical activity and through finding work."

Mr Hokianga was prompted to start Hikoi 4 Life in 2010 because his father had died at 49, obese and suffering from Type II diabetes.

"Although he had his family around him, deep down I now know that he actually was a lonely man that was morbidly obese with 207kg and 5 ft 2 [157cm] and he didn't have a place like this to come to.

"I know for a fact that if this was around when my dad was alive he would have been able to come to this and work on his own health and well being and feel as though he is not out of place."

The gym caters to those around the region, but a large majority come from Camberley, Flaxmere and Raureka.

It charges only $2 per person, with those over 60 given free entry.

"The other gyms are up to $25 a week and that is just out of the reach of the people that we deal with on a daily basis."

About 150 rangatahi (youth) frequent the gym up to three times a week.

Mr Hokianga said it has never been about having the "flashest stuff", but that the gym simply needs a platform from which it can reach the community.

"We can sustain a lease, we just need to find a place that can allow us to have our netball courts up and sustain our gym as well," he said.

Hastings District councillor Henare O'Keefe said the gym has been salvaging lives and has "been going above and beyond the call of duty on the smell of an oily rag".

"In my humble opinion we the community are morally and ethically bound to help source a place of residence for this precious kaupapa.

"The shame about it is if they don't get another building, I don't know where to from there for them. But my concern is that there aren't many in the health fraternity that are reaching out to support them and help them especially after all the good work that they've done.

"These guys go where angels fear to tread and that's not an exaggeration."