This annual fundraising event for the Cancer Society has been running since 2013, and is a half-marathon night walk around the central city. Although it is touted as a mystery walk, the exact route is publicised two weeks beforehand, and has been much the same each year, a clockwise circuit taking in Auckland Domain, Grafton Bridge, K Rd, Ponsonby Rd, Westhaven, Viaduct Harbour, the waterfront, The Strand and Parnell Rise. This year’s Walking Stars was an official ABTC activity, with 5 members taking part. Entrants can choose from power walkers (fit and fast), striders (fast) and strollers (slow). Power walkers (blue number tag) take the lead, followed by the striders (white number tag) then the strollers (yellow number tag), walking through the Auckland Domain as one long group. Once they come to the streets where there are traffic lights to wait at and shops to duck into to buy a snack, the group gets progressively strung out. A safety  rule is never to walk alone, but with at least one other person. The number tag must be worn on the front at all times, and closed shoes that have been used for walking are essential. Apart from a few tiny spits of rain on Lower Domain Drive, the weather was dry throughout the whole walk. All along the way there were volunteers cheering us and giving words of encouragement and occasional high-fives. It was 8:25pm when the strollers went through the start point arch, and we walked past the wintergardens and around the sports ground to go through the grandstand beside the start point, then on to Domain Drive and the formal gardens. From there we went past the red-lit museum and on to the Lower Domain Drive to come out to the bottom of Grafton Rd and our first grunt up to Grafton Bridge. This complex route through the domain was to help to ensure a total of 21km was covered. We crossed Grafton Bridge and walked along K Rd and into Ponsonby Rd and the top of Western Park which was a loo stop with portaloos set up. As we passed Franklin Rd one of us said that there was already one house with Christmas lights; only five days later the whole street would become a fairyland of lights. We turned into Jervois Rd and down Curran St to walk under the coathanger and the halfway point at Westhaven. There were spectacular views of the marina with Sky Tower and the central city highrises as we walked along the cycleway to the overbridge to Beaumont street, there was no using the lift! The almost entire circumnavigation of Victoria Park was to contribute to the full 21km, before we carried on to Karanga Plaza on Viaduct Harbour. By now it was approaching midnight, the target time for this stop. Walking out to the end of Princes Wharf and back to Quay St down the other side was another extension to ensure the half-marathon distance was completed. As we walked along Quay St towards The Strand we saw quiet electric trains approaching Britomart and a noisy goods train in the wharves. John was really grateful to God for Jans, a Danish participant - keeping up a lively conversation with him as we climbed the steep Parnell Rise then up through the Parnell Village made the experience much easier for both of them now feeling very tired .

Our route through the Auckland Domain was Cenotaph Rd below the cenotaph in front of the museum, then a repeat of the route along the sports fields to come to the finish point. John in the strollers reached the arch at 1:47am, about 5 hours 20 minutes from the start, with the others in the striders finishing a little earlier, and yellow lanyards with blue and yellow steel Walking Stars pendants were handed out as a completion prize.

COST: Registration $59-$90 depending on how soon the booking was made. This covered event costs only, participants would need to get sponsors to raise the Money for the Cancer Society. DISTANCE: 21.5km AVERAGE SPEED INCLUDING BREAKS:  4 km/h MAXIMUM SPEEED:  7.2km/h