Rowing For Life Aotearoa NZ
Rowing the entire East Coast of New Zealand.
3000 km
5 months
An epic journey dedicated to charity.
The Charities
We are proud to be campaigning for four charities that do such incredible work to help so many.
Child Cancer Foundation supports New Zealand children and teenagers with cancer, offering emotional care, support, bereavement aid, education, research and advocacy services to help the children and their families.
Lions Club Cancer Trust offers a free mobile skin cancer screening service and education to anyone who may face barriers such as costs that may discourage them from seeking early detections of skin cancer.
Starship Foundation funds the Starship National Air Ambulance and many aspects of the Starship hospital such as education services, child care, research and innovation; drastically improving care for sick Kiwi kids.
Surf Life Saving New Zealand represents 74 Surf Life Saving Clubs and over 4500 volunteer lifeguards who patrol all over New Zealand. They do their utmost to promote water safety around our beaches.
Every donation made will be equally shared among these charities. Even if we don’t reach our ambitious goal, every single dollar means so much, and we deeply appreciate any support you could give.
Lions Club Cancer Trust
Child Cancer Foundation
Starship Foundation
Surf Life Saving NZ
Please Donate to help us help our charities
And if you can offer us any assistance with accommodation or fuel, please do Contact Us
The Row
We plan to row the full length of New Zealand following the East Coast. Rowers and supporters from all areas are invited to participate in an area and distance of their choice. We will row in a coxed Quad Coastal Rowing Boat, averaging 40kms per day, weather and sea permitting. Lions Clubs NZ are arranging meet and greets at beach landings, food and accommodation where possible, and fundraising activities along the journey.
Watch out for these fundraisers as we progress up the islands.
For rowers, see this link for some more information about the row.
Stewart Island Adventure
South Cape Stewart Island to Bluff
2 December 2023
New Zealand Adventure
Bluff to Cape Reinga
10 February 2024
About Us
My name is Ian Hamilton from the Invercargill Rowing Club. I’ve been involved in rowing since 1990, with Coaching, Club Committee and Masters Rowing. Over those years I have met, and been friends with many of NZ’s rowing athletes.
Previous Rowing Adventures
Foveaux Strait
In 2010 three other Masters rowers and myself from the Invercargill Rowing Club rowed across Foveaux Strait, in a quad sculls rowing skiff. The journey was 37 kms and took 3:53 hours, with the Argosy Fishing boat, local Coastguard and other boats in support. Raising funds for our new Rowing Club shed.
Cook Strait
After many months of planning and training, the Masters group rowed across Cook Strait on 21 April 2016, using the same quad sculls rowing skiff. Leaving early from the Picton Rowing sheds, we rowed through the Sounds and Tory Channel, across Cook Strait, around Barretts Reef into Wellington Harbour, and into the Star Boating Club. A total of 98 kms in 13½ hours, raising funds for CanTeen NZ.
The New Adventure
The new adventure is to row the entire length of NZ. Rowers are invited to participate in different areas, being swapped in and out of the Coastal Boat with the IRB, and Support Boats. The whole journey is being supported by the Lions Clubs NZ.
Rowing For Life
Through the Invercargill Rowing Club, the funding agencies enabled us to purchase a Coastal Rowing Boat suitable to row the east coast of NZ, and to promote coastal rowing to our young and senior rowers. We would like to acknowledge and thank the Invercargill Licensing Trust, the Community Trust South, and Aotearoa Gaming Trust (Southern Trust) for making it possible to purchase our coxed quad Coastal Rowing Boat, Sculls, and Trailer.
The Boat
A*Live SOS
Need A Nerd
Lions Clubs of NZ
Invercargill Rowing Club
Invercargill Licencing Trust
Community Trust South
Aotearoa Gaming Trust
Show your support!
We’ve partnered with UniformNZ to produce campaign T-shirts so that anyone can show their support for our journey.
If you’d like to purchase a shirt, please follow the link below. Men’s and Women’s sizes are all available.
We’re looking for supporters and rowers from all areas in New Zealand to take part in the journey. Please see this link for more information about our journey, the rowing schedule and the allocated crews.
If you could offer us assistance with accommodation, food or fuel for the journey, we would love to hear from you.
We’d also love to hear from any rowers who may be interested in partaking in a leg of the journey, please indicate which area you are interested in and dates that you would be available.
Please note that the dates supplied on the rowing schedules are estimates, as we don’t know if we may be delayed due to weather and water conditions. If you are interested, please fill in the form below and let us know what you could help us with.