KIA MĀRŌ MĀ MATIU WALK, 18th-21st Feb 2024 Reading to Bristol

Kia Ora!

As you may have seen, we’ve been a busy bunch! Ahead of our Whānau Cup charity match against Rugby for Heroes, our fearless team decided that the time was right for another walk. Like our previous effort, our walkers wanted to do something awesome for the event, but it needed to be bigger, bolder, and longer. 

“How does 100 miles sound?”, chimed in one idealistic voice after many beers. “Yeah, sure, and maybe we’ll do it through country which famously floods all the time”, came the sarcastic reply waiting for someone else to input something far more sensible. Unfortunately, everyone else had the same idea and had forgotten to take away the admin privileges of the initial proposer. 

So on the 18th February 2024, 15 hikers rocked up to Reading, cold, tired, and kicking themselves for their laissez-faire attitude to the Matt Ratana Rugby Foundation website password. Their walk, apparently, would take them from Reading to Hungerford RFC, then through the valleys of the sunny Avon to Trowbridge RFC, walking to Keynsham RFC and finally all the way to Dings Crusaders RFC in Bristol, their final destination. They did the only thing they could do with the mounting pressure of a donation page set up for their jolly stroll and put one foot in front of the other. Their spirits were not downtrodden however, and camaraderie was high amongst the group. They trekked through overground, underground and wombled free all the way through each waymarker and cornerstone, through each bridge, valley, and ford. 

Along the way, our walkers endured everything that was thrown at them. From trench-like flooding to pitch-black hiking, from cobble streets to Cotswold stone, and from the bright city lights to the floodlit stadium. Our story was everywhere, suddenly a walk planned to raise money for a rugby charity became something of a sensation. We made new stations across the west country, and even made it onto national news headlines! It was wonderful to see all the support flood from far and wide. Our community pulled through raising over £10,000, every penny going towards the work ourselves and Rugby For Heroes do on a daily basis.

The videos and photos shown here are just a snapshot of what we’ve been up to and we are raring to go for our next event. If you are interested in how our Whānau Cup game went, you can see that here. If you would like to see what this all went to support, please visit our website, here. And finally, if you can give anything towards our incredible work helping 330 young people every week, then please donate here.

Thank you firstly to our hikers, our filmmaker Mike Rumsey, and everyone involved in the organising of the charity game against Rugby for Heroes. Thank you to all of the clubs which hosted our stay and made all of this possible. Thank you, Steve, from Reading Ground Works for rescuing our walkers when they needed it most. And thank you to everyone else who in anyway supported our walkers on their expedition. We appreciate you all and are proud to call you our Whānau.