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A challenging maritime fundraising event getting underway in coming weeks will see a four-person rowing boat make its way up the entirety of New Zealand’s east coast, and coastal towns in our area will be among the planned stops along the way.
Ian Hamilton, from the Invercargill Rowing Club, will join others in a quad coastal rowing boat, with the inaugural leg from Stewart Island to Bluff in early December. Then, in February, the epic Bluff to Cape Reinga quest will begin.
Rowing an average 40 kilometres a day – depending on weather and sea conditions, and allowing for spare and lay days – Ian and his crewmates hope to complete the journey by mid-July.
Stops in Snells Beach, Omaha, Leigh and Mangawhai are expected to occur around mid-June.
The rowers will be accompanied by a support boat, and experienced rowers from around the country are being invited to tag team along the way. Inflatable rescue boats from surf lifesaving clubs along the route will be used to swap rowers in and out between the rowing boat and support vessel.
The adventure aims to raise funds for four charities – Starship Children’s Hospital, the Child Cancer Foundation, Surf Lifesaving NZ, and Lions Clubs’ mobile skin cancer screening service.
“At selected landing points along the way, Lions Clubs NZ will arrange fundraisers in the form of meetups, visits by Olympic rowers, presentations to schools and the like,” Ian says, adding that well known rowers interested in taking part include 2012 Olympics gold medallists Joseph Sullivan and Nathan Cohen.
The mission’s progress will be tracked via a website currently being prepared.
Ian says the El Niño system that is expected to bring drier conditions will help, and the rowers are hoping that, come the East Cape, “a nice gentle south-east breeze will help push us up the coast”.
Ian and fellow rowers have embarked on more modest long-distance rows before, crossing the 37 km-wide Foveaux Strait in 2010 to raise funds for a new club shed, and rowing 98kms across the Cook Strait in 2016 to raise funds for Canteen, the support organisation for young people living with cancer.
A Rowing for Life Aotearoa NZ Givealittle page will be up and running in the coming days, and Ian says anyone wanting to support the effort can also get in touch, at ian.hamilton@xtra.co.nz
“If everybody engages, as a true ‘Team of Five Million’ and with the support of media coverage, I’m sure that we can raise $5 million, simply $1 from each person lucky enough to live in New Zealand,” Ian says.
