Te Whanake - Our Blog

Te Heke Ora - Overview of the 2017 Challenge

Posted by Te Whanake on 20 March 2017

Wow! What an awesome achievement by the whānau that completed the first ever Heke Ora Challenge, a health and fitness event that challenged the NRAIT hapū to travel 1000km through any exercise of their choice from mid-January to mid-February.

Te Heke Ora Challenge was put together for NRAIT members to remember and pay tribute to our ancestors’ successful heke (migration) to Te Tau Ihu, a journey of almost 1000km from Kawhia.

Out of the 14 teams, and 96 participants from ages 3 to 99, 10 teams reached and exceeded the goal of covering 1000kms across the set time frame – a massive achievement of a combined 11,000kms. Almost 6,000kms of that were completed by bike, 4,000kms from walking or running, and the rest was made up from swimming or paddling.

Highlights

  • Team Chase got the challenge underway with a karakia at Kawhia, and so began the 30 day challenge for whānau throughout all of Aotearoa.
  • Moana Wakefield from Pūroto Fitness provided nutrition and exercise advice to challengers via the Facebook page.
  • Allanya Misiepo-Walters recently lost her sister, but their whānau marched on through the challenge. Allanya is also a Project Jonah Medic who attended the pilot-whale stranding rescue at Farewell Spit – she said that if she hadn’t done the Heke Ora Challenge then she would not have been fit enough to help properly with the rescue efforts.
  • Aunty Mere, 80 years old, swam every day.
  • Aunty Vera, 99 years old, from Team Vera Morgan walked 2.4km daily on her walking frame. This team said the challenge not only increased the whānau’s amount of physical activity, but also helped in having more quality family time.

We were so impressed to see how many kaumatua were involved and leading the way for many of the whānau teams, inspiring the young ones to get involved and showing that age is just a number.

Well done!

A big tēnā koutou and congratulations to the following teams:

  • Team Vera Morgan
  • Team Misiepo-Walters
  • Team Chase Whānau
  • Team Katu Whānau
  • Team Harry’s Parks
  • The Outsiders
  • Team Tāmati
  • Team Heke Runners
  • Team Porirua Chases
  • Team Ahi Kaa
  • Team Te Whānau O Riwia no te Wha
  • Stephens Whānau
  • Team Willison Whānau
  • Team Poari

You can see some photo summaries from the teams here.

 

Following on from Te Heke Ora Challenge there are many other ways to stay involved in health and fitness events. Jo Nathan, NRAIT project facilitator, has entered a woman’s team into the Wairua Warrior event and wants to encourage wahine to join her Mana Wahine team. You can email her here if you’re interested.

 

Once again, congratulations to all the teams that took part, and we hope many of you that watched from the sidelines will take part in our next health and fitness challenge.

Tags: