A once paralysed Walk1200km participant shares how she walked nearly 6000km!

Five years ago Jo Booker was paralysed and in intensive care after contracting a rare illness. Now she’s finished her first year of the Walk1200km challenge, averaging more than 100km a week while raising money to protect native species.

In late 2019, Booker, who lives in Arrowtown, got a bout of flu that progressed to Guillain-Barré syndrome, a rare autoimmune disease in which the immune system attacks the nervous system. She spent more than two months in hospital. 

“It took a month before I could open my eyes again, and when out of hospital I couldn’t walk further than a kilometre,” she says. 

Booker worked hard at her recovery and by April 2020 she was well enough to hike up Brow Peak (1456m) – a challenging 16km track above Arrowtown.

By late 2023 she was ready to undertake a new challenge. That’s when she discovered Walk1200km.

“I thought, I reckon I can do that in 12 weeks. And then I thought that if I did I could perhaps turn it to a good purpose.”

Booker is a trustee for Southern Lakes Sanctuary, a consortium of local trapping groups working to eliminate predators in the landscape surrounding lakes Hāwea, Wānaka and Wakatipu. Booker decided to turn her supercharged Walk1200km into a fundraiser for the trust.

She set a goal to raise $52,000 by walking 5200km in a year – that’s 100km a week, or just over 14km a day.

“I didn’t realise just how much commitment it would take. It’s been quite a big year. But then as time went by I got addicted and if I hadn’t walked 14km in a day I felt really slack.”

Booker’s typical routine was to walk 8km before work on Arrowtown’s Tobin Track, then 7km on Sawpit Gully Track in the evening. She interspersed this with longer tramps, including the Five Passes Route. 

Along the way, she found both mental and physical benefits.

“I feel physically strong, I sleep well and eat what I like. And mentally I’m really settled, because I have a lot of thinking time. If there are any work problems or issues in your home life, you can go for a walk and clear your head and nothing feels too bad afterwards.”

Booker reached her distance goal late last year and by December she had raised $34,000.

Her tip for completing Walk1200km is to break it up into achievable chunks and “just keep doing it”. 

“You don’t have to do it all at once. If you go for a walk at breakfast, a walk at lunchtime and a walk in the evening, you’ll cover the ks and feel a whole lot better.

“It’s a fantastic thing that Wilderness has done, and it’s really inspiring to hear how it has helped people to change their lives.”