word choice - How to use はるばる / はるばると in a sentence

はるばる - from afar; over a great distance; all the way

I'd greatly appreciate someone telling me what the と at the end of はるばる does to it's meaning, and if it affects the words' location in a sentence (I've seen it used at the beginning as well as the end of a sentence which has me confused!)

Any example uses much appreciated.

Answer

It is something like -ly in English. It turns a word into an adverb. In case of はるばる, it has a slight flavor of adverb from the beginning, so it may be used with or without と.

The word moving around is not directly due to と. Adverbs move around relatively freely.