Tour Aōtearoa for Taku Wairua by the Waterboy

Kia ora! I’m Ella, and I’ll be doing a cycle trip called Tour Aōtearoa from Feb 23 to mid/late March. This trip starts at Cape Rēinga at the top of the North Island and finishes at Bluff down the bottom of the South Island. I currently work as a paramedic in Hamilton, and in this line of work commonly see people who are struggling with mental health concerns. Some of these young people and adults have had multiple layers of stressors throughout their lives which unfortunately sometimes culminate in self harm and suicide. This is a frequent part of our job, and while we do what we can to help people who are at a crisis point, we are literally the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff.

As part of this cycle, I’ve chosen to fundraise for Taku Wairua, which is a personal development and mentoring programme born from The Waterboy, an organisation that aims to give Kiwi kids opportunities in personal development activities and sport by breaking down barriers, as they believe that everyone is a product of their environment and sport is an integral part of growing up in New Zealand. These guys do an incredible job of giving kids opportunities to get involved in activities they otherwise would have had difficulty accessing.

Taku Wairua is comprised of the four following pillars; belonging (pēpehā and whakapapa), goalsetting, self discovery (Myers-Briggs and self discovery questions) and citizenship (volunteering and visiting pēpēha - places of significance). Taku Wairua is currently delivering their self development programme throughout a number of primary schools in New Zealand, and will hopefully keep growing! The impact of what Taku Wairua is doing will have ongoing long term positive effects for so many of these young people, helping them to have resilience to withstand some of the stressors they will encounter in their lives.

I’m getting behind Taku Wairua by the Waterboy to help them keep doing what they’re doing to help kids find identity and purpose, aiding them to set goals, and have an understanding of where they come from so they can choose where they want to go and do great things with their lives.

This page will be live until late March when I will have completed the 3000km cycle - go on and give however much you’d like :)