1300km for our ambulance services

Kia ora e te whānau, thank you for visiting our page! :)

As you may know, this summer we're walking the 1300km length of the South Island on Te Araroa trail. We are hoping to share our journey, and raise awareness of the amazing work Aotearoa's emergency ambulance service does.

For the last three years Pim has been a student Paramedic at Whitirea Porirua, and is weeks away from completing his Bachelor of Health Science (Paramedicine). Throughout his degree he has been a volunteer Ambulance Officer with Wellington Free Ambulance, so through experience knows how amazing and important our emergency ambulance staff and services are.

Knowing how important these services are, we think it's CRAZY that St John and WFA are charities, and only partially government funded.

St John ambulance needs to raise 25% ($80million) of their operating costs each year to support the growing demands for their services. Each year they respond to more than 469,000 call-outs, and run a wide range of community and health services to support people living healthy, happy lives. Wellington Free Ambulance responds to one in ten people in the Wellington Region every year (100,000 calls), and provides the only free service in the country. Wellington Free Ambulance need to raise 20% of their operating costs each year to keep going.

We believe that the ambulance service should be fully funded, so are doing our bit to raise funds and awareness of the amazing work that our ambulance staff do every day.

Follow us on Instagram @flightofthekiwi , and let us know if you'll be in the South Island this summer we'd love to see you!! :)