It started with Lookout Knob, then came Peter Knob, Brown Knob, Caesar Knob and Bare Knob.

Aimee Jules and her partner Oscar are on a mission to climb every knob in New Zealand, from 200m lookouts to 2000m summits.

The Nelson-based photographer and videographer has long loved adventure filmmaking. She has directed and produced two short films following other people’s expeditions, including paddling across Cook Strait and exploring national parks.

“After I finished those, I really wanted to make another film,” Jules says. “But it’s quite hard relying on other people. I thought it’d be great to push myself and explore filmmaking through something that we were doing.”

So the couple went back to the drawing board. “We thought about a billion different things,” she says. “There are the classic feats, like summiting all New Zealand’s 3000m peaks or hiking Te Araroa. But we thought, that’s not really us, we’re not hardcore athletes.”

They wanted something different. The idea emerged when Oscar and a workmate were chatting about Hailes Knob, the closest knob to where they live.

“For about six months we were talking about knobs – wondering what they are and how many there are in New Zealand,” Jules says. According to Land Information New Zealand (LINZ), a knob is a small rounded hill, especially an isolated one. Topo maps show 137. “We thought: that number’s achievable. Why don’t we try to summit them all?”

The mission – with no deadline – began in January last year. They ticked off four in one trip, starting with Lookout Knob in Kahurangi National Park.

“That one was easy, but for the other three we had to go bush; they were all off track,” Jules says. “We very quickly realised how difficult off-track travel is. At some points we were moving at one kilometre an hour, and we didn’t even know we were at the top of two of them because there was no view; they were just in the bush.

“But it’s kind of hilarious, and that’s the whole point.”

The bush-bashing has made them feel like explorers. “We’re discovering something through really hard work,” she says.

So far they’ve climbed 20 knobs and are enjoying the excuse to venture off the beaten track. In January they spent six days hiking across the Tararua Range to summit 11 knobs, including Constantina Knob, tucked into dense goblin forest of moss-covered beech trees.

“It was magical,” Jules says. “I wouldn’t have been surprised if an elf or fairy jumped out. We wouldn’t normally go tramping there, so it gave us a reason to explore somewhere totally new.”

Some knobs are easily accessible on day walks, but others, particularly those deep in Fiordland, will require planning. To reach Bear Knob in Abel Tasman National Park, the pair had to kayak.

“Lots of people do things because they want to be the first or the fastest,” Jules says. “But it’s really awesome to have a project to do just because we want to explore, be outdoors and have cool experiences.

“Just wanting to do something for the fun of it is enough of a reason to try.”

The couple will also reassess their list. After contacting LINZ, they discovered some knobs are actually rock features in the ocean. “It looks like our list may be closer to 120,” she says.

She’s particularly looking forward to Philosopher’s Knob in Lewis Pass after reading about it in a 2000 edition of Wilderness. “The writer says it’s such a Kiwi name – grand enough to ponder life’s meaning but brought back down to earth by calling it not a peak or a mountain, but simply a knob.”

It’s been hard to uncover the stories behind the knob names, and Jules hopes they’ll meet people along the way who can fill in the gaps. “There are some bizarre ones, like Broken Leg Knob – surely there’s a good story behind that,” she says.

“We’re taking it one knob at a time.”