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Hikoi enters home straight

Bishop Kelvin Wright's marathon walk and cycle through Otago and Southland nears its end.

Taonga News  |  11 Apr 2014

Bishop Kelvin Wright will complete his month-long 830km walk and cycle through Otago and Southland tomorrow afternoon.

Dr Wright embarked on Te Harinui – A Hikoi of Joyful News 26 days ago to mark the bicentennary of the gospel arriving in New Zealand. Along the way, hundreds of walking companions have shared a portion of the journey with him.

The Hikoi began on Stewart Island. It will end at Kurow, in the Waitaki Valley, on Saturday afternoon.

Bishop Kelvin says the Hikoi has been a time to engage with the people in cities, towns, farms, rural roads and walking tracks, and that it has had distinct stages.

“This walk has had a profound effect on each of us taking part,” he says. “Walking around Stewart Island and then through Southland was followed by travel on a boat and a helicopter through the Central Lakes District and cycling to Clyde.

“There was the Rail Trail and the Taieri Gorge Railway followed by the walk north through Coastal Otago. Each place and its people has a distinctive and rich character.”

The Hikoi will have a formal conclusion in Dunedin’s lower Octagon on Sunday afternoon at 4pm.

Two hundred helium-filled balloons will be released to mark 200 years of the Christian gospel in New Zealand – followed by a shared meal of fish and chips for all  present.

Bishop Kelvin says the challenge for the Church in Otago and Southland now is to daily live out the depth of engagement with the community that was experienced and symbolized on the Hikoi.

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