From local urban walks to classic New Zealand tramps and international trails, one group of walkers reflects on their first Walk1200km challenge.

I was invited to join the Walk1200km challenge by my friend Esther, a fit Gen Z lass, and her mum Jane. We decided to measure our walks any way we liked and share our tally every month. There was also a WhatsApp group for extra accountability. We began the year with about 20 friends and acquaintances signed up. 

This will be a cinch, I thought, as I completed Gillespie Pass in mid-January, knocking off 56km in three days. And then: how soul destroying to see my January tally of 121.5km pale in comparison to ‘Helen of Christchurch’, who recorded 298km. (How was that even possible?) 

It turned out Helen and her husband Steve were training for the Portuguese Camino. Helen started slowly but was soon covering 7–10km a day. She loved discovering podcasts, playlists and great nature walks in Canterbury. 

Work, life in general and a bout of Covid meant that, by June, I was well under the minimum monthly requirement. I had decided only to measure walks that built up a sweat and required a shower. It was time to change tack. On a trip to Italy I used Esther’s step counter. I can report unscientifically that the average café-museum-café circuit is about 10,000 steps with half a kilo gained (those pastries are amazing).

By mid-year there were entries on the spreadsheet that made my eyes water. Helen and a few others were regularly posting over 300km a month. Esther had made the magic 1200km by mid-year despite a largely sedentary job with 12-hour shifts. Much to the amusement of her colleagues, she would pace up and down the office floor and walk up and down all the stairs to keep her step count up.

In May Esther shifted to Perth where the heat was an extra challenge. She found a small lake with a shaded 5km walking track that helped her finish the year with 2400km. She now feels confident enough to tackle running a marathon.

Back to Helen’s Camino adventure. Fit and ready, with a 6kg pack, she began well. Rain, wet feet and kilometres of cobblestones resulted in blisters and an infected toe, but after 15 days and a course of antibiotics, she and Steve completed the 330km, and she said you couldn’t wipe the grin off their faces. Helen went on to finish the year with a Walk1200 tally of about 1700km. 

Meanwhile, Jane counted her steps on regular urban and semi-rural walks and occasional tramps. She regularly met up with six Walk1200km participants in Hawke’s Bay and ended up walking 2218km.

I squeaked over the line with 1224km – 90 per cent of my walks used my original tracking method of breaking a sweat. 

Regardless of our walking styles and locations, the regularity of pursuing a healthy and inexpensive exercise regime while connecting with people and nature was something we all enjoyed. Further benefits included an insignificantly slow burn of calories, a feeling of virtue, social enrichment and buoyancy of mood. Walking with friends and updating the monthly kilometre tally kept us accountable and motivated.

From local urban walks to classic New Zealand tramps and international trails, our conclusion is that at no stage should life’s demands or bad weather be a reason to resist positive peer pressure and a well-thought-out goal. Thank you to Wilderness for Walk1200km (and to Esther for getting us going). 

Most of us are doing the challenge again and plan to continue into the future.

Our top tips: walk the dogs, walk to work and walk those city paths, historical sites, art or mural trails, reserves, gardens – even cemeteries that you previously drove past. Travel to new locations and take a friend, join a group and make new friends, and knock off those big tramps you’ve always wanted to do. Now is the time.