Monster waves and a sandstorm during Northland's week of nasty weather were water off a duck's back to "wild boy" Brando Yelavich on his epic walk around the country's coastline.
"It wasn't too bad - I just kept walking - nothing really stops me," the 20-year-old Aucklander said yesterday while heading along a beach towards Ngunguru, northeast of Whangarei.
Mr Yelavich set out in February last year from Cape Reinga on an anticlockwise solo circumnavigation of New Zealand, hunting and gathering his own food between offers of meals and accommodation from strangers, and raising money for charity. He has raised $22,500 for Ronald McDonald House, and has about 600km left to walk over the next four to five weeks to where he began his adventure 17 months ago.
Pictures and video clips on his Facebook page show him walking through a sandstorm south of Mangawhai Heads and being drenched by a giant wave at Tawharanui during last week's wild weather, but he said he survived worse on the West Coast last year.
