People from around the world take part in the Rotorua Walking Festival. Photo / Robbie Dalziel
People from around the world take part in the Rotorua Walking Festival. Photo / Robbie Dalziel
Mark your calendars, lace up your trainers and get your stride on in preparation for the 30th Rotorua Walking Festival, coming up in March.
The Rotorua Walking Festival, which is being held on March 18 and 19, aims to use walking to bring people together so they can enjoy our natural and built environments, and to keep people healthy through physical activity.
The festival technically starts with the Nocturnal Walk on the Friday evening (March 17) at 8pm. The cost to enter on the night is a $5 donation to Rotorua Botanical Society.
There is then a full programme of forest walks on the Saturday through the Whakarewarewa Forest, with 10-kilometre, 21km and 42km walks. On the Sunday there are 10km, 20km, 30km and 42km walks through Rotorua’s geothermal, steam, lakefront and parks and reserve areas.
Organising committee chairman Deryck Shaw says there is a real challenge for walkers this year, with back-to-back marathon walks on the Saturday and Sunday.
In addition, there are fundraising walks for Rotorua Parents Centre on Saturday at 10.30am and for Rotorua SPCA on Sunday at 10.30am. These walks are between 2km and 5km and are fun events.
All proceeds from these events go to the organisation involved.
Also this year, for the 30th event, on Sunday, March 19 there will be a Café Cruise Walk. This will be a 5km loop walk to local cafés in an easily undertaken route from Neil Hunt Park.
All funds ($5 entry) will go to local groups including Rotorua SPCA, Rotorua Parents Centre, Rotorua Trails Trust and St Chads Communication Centre.
Deryck says it is fantastic to be involved in an event over a 30-year period, and wishes to acknowledge all the people who have supported the event, including those who have attended and supported it from all over the world.
“It is amazing how quickly the time has gone.”
The walking festival features a number of forest walks.
He believes there are a range of reasons the walking festival has continued to thrive over the past 30 years.
These include local people helping to organise the event, and strong relationships with clubs and organisations such as Rotary, Netherlands Society, Lakes City Athletics, Rotorua Trust and Rotorua Lakes Council.
It is also because early on the festival became part of an international network of walks which brings in people from all over the world, he says.
“This has been really fantastic, and I think all these together have made it an enduring event.”
He says there have been a few changes over the years - for example, at its largest, about 15 years ago, the programme had 10 days of walks.
“That became too huge and it got diluted. There have been a lot of changes around the different walks held.”
