Editorial: Kylie's long walk to success

Kylie Lang.

What a fantastic effort by Rotorua's Kylie Lang.

While some of us are still getting over the excesses of Christmas Day, Ms Lang is most likely still coming down from the huge high of having this week completed her mammoth walk the length of the North Island.

In doing so, she raised $13,700 and a huge amount of awareness for the Mental Health Foundation.

After spending much of this year preparing, Ms Lang set off in mid-October from Cape Reinga, following the Te Araroa Trail.

Her trek was dubbed "I'm Not Alone" as on each leg she was joined by at least one other person, sometimes people she had never met.

But it's also a fitting title, given her cause.

By taking on this huge task she has helped open up discussion about mental health issues, an area where those affected need to know they don't have to be alone.

And she's not finished. Not by a long way. Having walked from Cape Reinga to Island Bay, the next step, so to speak, will be to take on the South Island.

Not immediately, of course - that will come next year.

In the meantime, I hope Ms Lang's Christmas has been merry, that she gets a good rest for at least a few days and gets a chance to put her feet up.

-Kylie Lang is the Rotorua Daily Post Person of the Month for December. In tomorrow's Weekend Edition we will reveal our Person of the Year.