New hip leads to stepped up lifestyle
Hakarimata Summit walk is a popular exercising spot for many, including one man who walks to the top many times a day.
For most of us, climbing 1500 steps up a hill would be a challenge, but for one man the Hakarimata summit is a walk in the park.
Reg Hohaia, 58, a semi-retired Ngaruawahia local, walks to the summit each day, sometimes three to four times a day.
“If you calculate the amount of steps I have climbed it would be mind boggling,” Hohaia said. “It’s like an addiction.”
He started doing the Hakarimata summit walk two years ago after having a hip replacement.
“I was overweight and couldn’t do much with a bad hip, but once I got the new one in, it’s like I was a new man,
“I started climbing once a week, then two, three, four, five and so on. By this time I was feeling good,” he said.
Hohaia greets and encourages each person he walks past, many of whom he has grown to know.
Sometimes you can also hear him singing at the top of his lungs – especially Bob Marley.
“You can work hard or you can cruise, it’s all up to you,” Hohaia said. He says some people take 50 minutes to get to the top, others only 25.
At the top of the summit Hohaia will stop and enjoy the view and talk to others. He gets people to pose for photos that will make it on to the 179-member Hakarimata Facebook page he has created.
Hohaia used it to rally support from fellow walkers for Tara Tissink and Anjali Thakker, two girls who used the summit track and who were fundraising for the Ice Hockey World Championships held in Italy last month.
Having worked in the meat industry for 42 years Hohaia is used to hard yakka. “People ask me if it gets easier. I say you still have to climb 1500 steps, that doesn’t change, but mentally you get stronger.”
The steps were added to the Hakarimata summit track two years ago and wind through native bush including kauri. According to DOC there are 1349 steps and the summit tower is 374 metres above sea level.
The summit track’s popularity is growing. In the last year the track had 40,000 visitors compared to 6000 two years ago, Department of Conservation liaison officer John Gumbley said.
The addition of the steps has had a positive effect, Hohaia says. “All our people are getting fitter, kids getting out and having fun in the bush.
“I think the majority do this to lose weight. I did. Don’t ask me how much I’ve lost but it feels great to get to your goals.”
