5 April 2006 Lincoln students 'trailwalking' for Oxfam to help beat world poverty

Four Lincoln University students are swapping the fitness trails of Christchurch for a 100-kilometre event circuit around Lake Taupo this weekend. (8-9 April)

They're taking part in New Zealand's inaugural Oxfam Trailwalker, a charity fund-raiser held annually in many parts of the world to raise money to help stamp out global poverty.

Some 190 teams of four are entered but the Lincoln University group is the only one from the South Island.

"We thought of taking part in this event six months ago and worked on our fitness over the summer and we're ready to go," says 21-year-old Nicholas Mead, the Lincoln University team captain.

Nicholas, a past pupil of Sacred Heart College, Auckland, is a graduate of the Sir Edmund Hillary Outdoor Pursuit Centre at Turangi and is in the third year of a Bachelor of Recreation Management degree at Lincoln University.

Team-mate Mike Gillies, originally from Wellington, also studied at the Outdoor Pursuit Centre at Turangi and is doing a Bachelor of Recreation Management degree at Lincoln. The other members of the team are Rob Lelieveld, a keen marathon runner not long back at Lincoln after being an exchange student at Colorado State University in the USA and Mark Chambers, who has worked in outdoor education in Scotland and is the only Christchurch hometown student in the group.

Fellow student and former sky diving instructor Chris Thornton, who broke his back in a paragliding accident two years ago, was a late withdrawal from the team due to a leg injury while training.

The students have raised $2500 in sponsorship for Oxfam during their preparation for the Trailwalker event, with Lincoln University making a donation of $1500.

"With Taupo located 369 metres above sea level, altitude will play a part in our performance," says Nicholas. "Overall I think we'll probably run about 60 percent of the distance and walk the other 40 percent."

Ian Collins, Journalist, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand