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WEDNESDAY 5 February 2020
News
Ivan’s long walk for life Jonty Dine
The trauma stemming from a sexual assault as a child eventually took its toll on Ivan Miller when he was 32. “It just caught up with me and I had a major breakdown,” he says. Hospitalised and heavily medicated, Ivan says he was stuck in a ‘Groundhog Day of misery’ for seven years starting in 2003.” Ivan turned to drugs and alcohol and wanted to end his life. After multiple stints in the Nelson Mental Health Unit, Ivan eventually met a friend who helped him turn things around. He suggested Ivan take an art course at NMIT, which he now says saved his life. “It put structure back in my day and gave me a social life which I had lost while I was ill.” He says it gave him an outlet to express everything he was feeling. One by one, Ivan came off his medications, learnt different strategies to cope when things got hard, and says he slowly got his life back. At the end of 2018, Ivan was living in Kerikeri when he lost his job due to a work restructure and saw it as the perfect opportunity to do something special. To help raise finds and awareness for mental health, Ivan set out to circumnavigate the country on foot.
Ivan Miller is currently walking the length and breadth of the country to raise awareness for mental health. Photo: Jonty Dine. “I had this idea of walking around New Zealand and I was ready to do it,” Ivan says. “So I sold all my stuff and just headed out.”
Having done no training and very little exercise in his life, Ivan says it was a bit of a shock to the system at first. “By the time I got to 90 Mile
Beach I knew I had to keep going.” Now, 12 months on, Ivan is still on his journey, having covered 3900km with about 2000km and
six months to go. “My biggest priority was to connect with New Zealanders and open a conversation around mental health,” Ivan says. “Because it’s something that is not talked about enough.” His journey across the country hasn’t been without plenty of adversity though. “Winter was a mental challenge more than anything else,” Ivan says. “Camping out in the frost, the coldest night was minus 6 degrees on the West Coast of the South Island.” In Fox Glacier he was caught in a storm and stranded for three weeks. “I couldn’t go north or south, there were 100,000 lighting strikes one night which was the most terrifying thing of my life, but I survived it.” He has been inundated with offers along the way from people taking his pack to the next stop. And Ivan says that nowdays his mental health is fantastic. “I was in a very good place when I started but it’s just grown.” He says he doesn’t even think about walking anymore, his legs “just do it”. “I don’t know how I am going to stop when I get to Cape Reinga,” Ivan says. You can follow Ivan’s journey ‘Walking for Life’ on Facebook.
News
WEDNESDAY 5 February 2020
A great turnout for the 13th Sarau Festival Susan Johnson Almost 4,500 people turned up at the community centre in Upper Moutere to celebrate the annual Sarau Festival. The weather was just about perfect for the 13th year of the festival and the crowd had plenty to see and do on Sunday. From craft beers and artisan food to trying out a bouncy castle and face painting for the kids, visitors could spend time strolling around the stalls until they were ready to relax with the live bands and artists that would entertain the crowd into the evening. The name Sarau is a nod to the Germans that settled in the Upper Moutere district and had called the village Sarau. During the First World War the name was changed to Upper Moutere. This year the proceeds from the festival are going towards the Upper Moutere community centre.
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Jenny Leith, organiser of the festival. Photo: Susan Johnson.
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