I volunteered to help out at the Trailwalker in Taupo April this year......
The event will be in Taupo again next year in April too.
and it is an awesome event that I would reccommend to everyone. I am putting a team together for next year, and have my sister and her husband(who has done it twice) keen. You need a team of 4 (and you must stick with your team, but 2 people can pull out if they get tired/sick). It is not for super sporty people ...well some people can run the 100km in 11 hours, but usually it is normal people who have put in a bit of training. The event is primiarily a fundraiser for Oxfam projects, as each team needs to get $2000 or something like that ($1500?) in fundraising, or pay an entry fee if you don't get enough fundraising. You do have to walk through the night, but there are stations where you can rest and get food and drink, and your support crew (friend you rope in to help) give you massages, fix blisters etc
If you don't want to walk 100km (why wouldn't you?), you can do what I did and volunteer as a marshal or registration person or massage person...and Oxfam give you $50 to donate to any team you want
It would be great to get lots of VUWTC teams up there....people often dress-up. We could have a VUWTC prize for the most inappropriate walking costume. But if you want to get a team together, it really helps to do it now, so that you can start fundraising (i.e. get everyone to give you money for Christmas, birthday).
Send me any questions