Student skikes for charity

Student skikes for charity

By Tim Miller, Critic

While many students are hitting the snow-covered slopes this ski season, one will be skiing with a little bit of a twist, hitting the road instead of the slopes.

Scott Kvick, a 19-year-old University of Otago Geology student, is planning on skiing, or more specifically ‘skiking’, all the way from Cape Reinga to Bluff. In what started out as a test of his own self-endurance has turned into an effort to raise $20 000 for both Canteen Otago and SPCA Otago. Kvick says he is not worried about the mammoth effort. “I realised what I will endure is nothing in comparison to what many others are involuntarily put through,” he says.

For many the idea of skiking is very farfetched, although it is much like traditional skiing – poles included – with the exception that it is done on the road instead of the mountains. Kvick has the sport it in his blood as it has a large following in Sweden, his father’s homeland.

Skiking is similar to the art of skating in ice hockey, a sport which Kvick also takes very seriously. He is part of the Dunedin Thunder which competes in the National Ice Hockey Championships. Along with university commitments, ice hockey practise and skiking training it would seem there were not enough hours in the week for Kvick. “Dealing with training, hockey and University is not too bad; hockey is real good for fitness levels so it's like killing two birds with one stone,” he says.

Kvick plans to make his skike training much harder once the hockey season is over, aiming to skike around 70km a day, the distance he will travel per day when he starts his trip on January 4. He hopes to finish around sometime in mid February.

Kvick is looking forward to the 2150km adventure, saying it will be his “most memorable ski trip.”

If anyone is wanting to support Kvick in his effort they can join his Facebook page, “I support Scott Kvicks fundraising skike of NZ.”

This story was syndicated by the Aotearoa Student Press Association via Critic www.critic.co.nz

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