Nice day for walk along waterfront

Hundreds of walkers donned their running shoes and high-visibility vests along the Napier waterfront yesterday to take part in the fifth annual Mitre 10 Mega Walk.

Organisers hope this year's fundraiser will have raised about $13,000 to go to CanTeen, which supports teenagers with cancer.

Participants took part in four events that catered to all types of walkers, ranging from the 29km The Mega Walk, starting in Hastings, to the 3.5km Mega Meander, which started in Ahuriri.

Event organiser Kerry Meehan said the walk had gone "nice and smoothly".

"Everybody seemed to really enjoy themselves," she said. "We had a really good turnout. I'd say we've beaten the 1250 [participants] we had last year. I think now we've done it for a few years everybody's getting the hang of how it goes."

The event had been well supported by the community as well, with the Eskview Fire Brigade using their water tanker to fill up water tanks along the route.

"It's just a really nice family day out and we've tried really hard to get the costs down so it's affordable. We just really want to thank all the people that took part. It's just a nice day to go for a walk along the waterfront, really."

This year also featured a new competition called The Shoe Clinic Challenge. All entrants in The Shoe Clinic Challenge were timed and eligible for prizes for men's and women's first and second places in the 28km and 15km walks.