The Troubled Boy Brando Yelavich. The Epic 600 Day 8,000 Kilometer Walk Around The Entire New Zealand Coastline. And Now The Book, Wildboy...

As many of you who've followed this blog for some time, know that I met young, troubled Brando Yelavich a couple of days into what was going to be a six hundred day, epic eight thousand kilometer walk around the entire New Zealand coastline.
I was there the day he finished, at the same place he started, by the lighthouse at Cape Reinga. He had on that Saturday, 23 August 2014 become the first person to complete that amazing and difficult journey.
And he had become a wonderfully impressive and inspirational young man.
He did ask me to help him write the book
and I'm delighted to say that Nicola McCloy has filled that role wonderfully well.
It's a great read...

Swiss Banker Andreas Pletscher Quits Counting Money To Pedal Around New Zealand...

There's more to life than money laughs the Swiss ex-banker Andreas Pletscher as he packs up his tent and minimum belongings to climb on his Cannondale to continue his ride to the Far North and New Zealand's Cape Reinga.
I caught up with him at the Department of Conservation's Uretiti campground recently.
Here was a man who knew the value of money but wasn't prepared to give his life for it.
Less is more he delighted in telling me.
The less I have to work to earn money to buy things I don't need, the more time I have to live a life I can imagine...

Saturday 23 August 2014. Brando Wildboy Yelavich Becomes The First Person To Walk The Entire New Zealand Coastline...

I'm back! he called with a huge grin on his face a few meters from the end and the crowd of family, friends and supporters cheered him on.
He'd left there exactly six hundred days earlier.
Brando had climbed his Everest and strode into the history books and the country's folklore becoming, on Saturday August 23 at 3.45pm,
the first person to ever walk the entire coastline of New Zealand.
He had walked the talk.
He had dreamed it and he had done it.
And as we watched, instead of coming up the hill, he raced down the steep sandy slope, took off his pack and clothes and ran into the embrace of The Tasman Sea that had looked after him and fed him on his way south all those days ago. Then, to our cheering, he made his way up the final slope towards us.
My young friend had invited me to spend his last night before the final few kilometers with him at Tapotupotu Bay, just to the east of Cape Reinga. There was no way The Flying Tortoise wasn't going to be there.
A film crew were there too, making a doco about Wildboy for the New Zealand ADHD Association on how he'd quieted his demons and resolved the issues surrounding ADHD and his Dyslexia. They pall into insignificance now.
Throughout his journey his words and deeds inspired many thousands of young and not so young children with similar issues.
And those without any.
I arrived at Cape Reinga at the northern tip of Aotearoa New Zealand, The Land Of The Long White Cloud. My country. And couldn't stop the tears from flowing.
I knew it was a spiritual place but I wasn't ready for the strength of emotions and the profound affect actually being there would evoke in me.
If I didn't know better I would swear I had Maori ancestry. And I would be proud to.
The Cape is a place where The Tasman Sea
and The Pacific Ocean meet, their respective currents doing battle and causing much turmoil for seafarers.
Many were the reasons for tears of joy to flow on Saturday and flow they did. It was an emotional homecoming for the boy who left there all those days and experiences ago. While the crowd of well wishers watched, they realised the wayward boy had become a wonderful, confident, personable and articulate young man.
His parents Todd and Donella, his sister Brooke, his Grandparents, his Uncles and Aunts his girlfriend Ngaio, all of us there and those who couldn't be, have cause to be immensely
proud of Brando.
There were people there, and many too who weren't, who've been proud to met Brando on his walk and think about him as being the son they'd have liked to have had, but never did.
I am one of them...

Wildboy Brando Yelavich Arrives At Tokerau Beach In The Far North Having Nearly Completed Walking The Entire New Zealand Coastline...

My young friend Wildboy Brando arrived at one of the most beautiful places on the planet yesterday afternoon.
I'd been waiting for him there.
It wasn't any hardship, it's a place where The Flying Tortoise chooses to spend a lot of time. And why not.
Brando arrived with his dad Todd who'd taken a few days off from work to continue the wonderful bonding that this father and son enjoy.
Brando has now walked over 8,300 kilometers on his epic journey to become the first person to walk the entire New Zealand coastline.
He hasn't got far to go now and will be spending a lot of time in the coming days pondering on just what he's going to do next.
He's due to complete his historic journey where he started in February 2013 at Cape Reinga, on August twenty three.
The Flying Tortoise will delight in being there to congratulate him...

Wildboy Brando Yelavich Is A Happy Man With Only About 500 Kilometers Left To Walk On His Coastline Circumnavigation Of New Zealand...

I met up with Brando again yesterday at Uretiti Beach, just about five hundred kilometers short of Cape Reinga in New Zealand's Far North.
He's a happy man having already  raised more than twenty two thousand dollars for Ronald McDonald House and walked around eight thousand kilometers on his epic journey.
But he's worried what he's going to do
when he gets to his goal.
I might have to keep walking he said.
I just love it...

Brando Yelavich Continues His Epic Journey To Become The First Person To Walk The Entire New Zealand Coastline...

A few days ago I had the delight of catching up with my young friend Brando on the Mahia Peninsula. Wildboy is the name he's using these days but since I met him on day two of his epic adventure to walk the entire New Zealand coastline, this remarkable young person has become an inspirational man.
His parents Todd and Donella have every reason to be immensely proud of their son with his attention deficit disorder and his dyslexia for achieving what nobody has ever achieved.
Many have talked about it but Brando is walking the talk and when he reaches Cape Reinga in early August he'll deserve every accolade that comes his way.
He will have conquered his first Everest.
He's got others in mind, like writing a book, continuing to inspire others, being the first person to climb a mountain on the moon and getting a car.
He jokes he's fed up with walking.
As you might well imagine he's had some wonderful adventures on his journey, catching his first Hapuka at Ngawi with my friend Malcolm was one, living off the land has been an incredible experience and he's met many amazing people.
Some like Tarsh from Dunedin have gone to great lengths to travel part of the way with him.
Right now she's walking with him from Mahia up the coast to Gisborne on the East Cape. You can follow Brando every step of the way too and on that matter, so far he reckons he's made over seven and a half million steps on the five thousand eight hundred kilometers already walked.
It was great to see him but I'm glad I'm not carrying his pack.
It's so heavy I could hardly lift it.
I'll catch up with him again before Cape Reinga.
And yes Brando. Life is good...