RICHARD ACKERLEY started young, eagerly devouring stories about veteran Kiwi mountaineers. His youthful reading sparked an ambition to test his outdoor skills, mental fortitude and stamina. Like kids in a candy shop, he and his older brother Kevin collected a bucket list of peaks and places to visit before they settled into ‘normal’ life. This epic journey would become the brothers’ rite of passage to manhood.
On November 14, 1994, they began their expedition by climbing Mt Hikurangi, towering 1752m above the Pacific. After cycling to the beach at Te Araroa and through
