The journey from Bluff to Cape Reinga is long – almost three million steps – but the road to healing from sexual abuse has felt a lot longer for a father of six who was raped over a period of several years by a family friend.
Sam Troth has embarked on a solo walk from the south of Aotearoa to the north, which will take him 55 days to complete.
But it is not a long time for the 39-year-old Bay of Plenty man who took 25 years to speak out about how he was repeatedly raped and violated, and psychologically manipulated by an adult male who was a close acquaintance of his family.