Louise Savage finds the Walk1200km group keeps her accountable.

Louise Savage is in her late 40s and says her walking journey is helping her “find out who I am and being ok with being on my own”.

Louise is based in Hamilton. She’s extending her circle of walks in the region, but, with 10-hour work days at the moment, she defaults to Hamilton Lake. There’s no lack of beauty there, she says: “Lately I’ve been the butterfly whisperer – all the butterflies everywhere I go come swarming to me; they land on my hand or I see them on flowers.”

For Louise they signify transformation. After the loss of a close friend earlier in the year, she’s looking at “solitude as my strength”. Her extended family is down south and “all my kids are adults so it’s just my little dog and I”.

After years of looking after others, now she’s choosing to focus on health and fitness – with the encouragement of her late friend, whose voice she hears when she walks. “‘Come on Lulu!’ she says – she was nearly 80 and she was like a second mum to me.”

Since her marriage ended seven years ago, Louise has been on a mission to be happy on her own and celebrate her accomplishments. She walked her first marathon and admits “I had blisters and I cried at the end – I didn’t care if I crawled at the end, I wanted to say I’ve done a full marathon… I was very proud of myself.”

She’s been wanting to find a group of walkers and the Walk1200km group “is amazing, it’s helped me so much – it encourages me; I’ve got a goal. It makes me accountable.”

Join Louise and thousands of others in doing the Walk1200km challenge – it’s never too late to start. Sign up here.