Whenua, whakapapa, whanau. In a new podcast series available from 16 October, Bruce Hopkins walks Te Araroa to take his father and brother's ashes back home to Stewart Island.

Bruce Hopkins wants to take the ashes of his dad and brother home to Rakiura/Stewart Island. He's just taking the long way to get there. The long, long way.

The Long Way Home is a unique RNZ podcast in which Bruce tells the story of walking Te Araroa - New Zealand's Trail, from Cape Reinga at the top of New Zealand to Rakiura/Stewart Island at the very bottom. Every week for five months, as he carries the ashes south, listeners will travel with him as he bashes his way through the bush, pushes his endurance to new limits and meets a raft of Kiwi characters.

Part adventure story, part memoir, part travelogue, The Long Way Home will allow you to be with Bruce in almost real-time.

The Long Way Home - whenua, whakapapa, whanau.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Whenua, whakapapa, whanau. Bruce Hopkins walks Te Araroa to take his father and brother's ashes back home to Stewart Island.

Bruce Hopkins has a plan.

For the next five months, he wants to walk the length of New Zealand, from Cape Reinga to Stewart Island, along Te Araroa - New Zealand's Trail.

It's a big plan, an audacious one, but it's just another bold move from a man who specialises in going all in. A mere 61 years old, Bruce Hopkins has lived several different lives, all of them unusual and none of them easy.

He's been a commercial crayfisherman in the deep waters off Cape Reinga. But he threw that in to become a contemporary dancer after watching just one rehearsal and feeling like he'd found his calling.

He later became an actor and was cast in one of the biggest movie franchises of all time; The Lord of the Rings.

He runs his own temp agency and also guides tourists around New Zealand's scenic high spots.

And now he's decided to walk the length of the country and make a podcast about the experience. It should only take him about five months of unbroken effort to complete the trail.

But this very long walk isn't all just about Bruce and what he wants to do. He's also raising money for charity, and wants to reflect on the land he was born and grew up in and about the history of his family.

In this, the first episode of The Long Way Home, Bruce talks about his inspiration for walking Te Araroa and the two men whose memory will sustain him as he heads south; his dad Bill and his big brother Doug.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

With a heavy pack and a lot of nerves, Bruce is underway, measuring the length of 90 Mile Beach and recalling dangerous days fishing off the Northland coast.

Loaded down under way too heavy a pack and with no small amount of nerves, Bruce Hopkins is underway!

During his first five days on Te Araroa - New Zealand's Trail, Bruce measures the length of 90 Mile Beach and meets a long distance cyclist.

He almost certainly doesn't find treasure on the beach but definitely does find some good kai moana. And the sandflies find him.

And he recalls some dangerous days as a commercial fisherman off the Northland coast.

Bruce Hopkins Trail Diary - Week One, 14-21 October 2017
Cape Reinga - Puketi Forest.

"Five days on 90 Mile Beach done. I am taking an early rest day here at Ahipara on Day Five, Wednesday 18 October 2017.

Including myself six walkers of Te Araroa (TA) showed up here after a rugged 31km slog into a nasty wind that blasted sand into my face for eight hours at about 30+ knots.

But the journey is underway and I will not be taking anything for granted. I am already uncovering some wonderful moments of connection with people and nature as well as some brutal encounters with what will be required in terms of perseverance over the next few months. It does feel great to have first 100km of coast & beach done & dusted.

Five days of slogging it through Northland forests from tomorrow to get to Kerikeri."

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details