New Zealand Virtual Walk 2422 km! Stage 1 - 210 km (1st-31st Jan)
Details
Do you want to walk at least 10000 steps a day throughout 2026? Then join this merry bunch of walkers and we will get you there! For 2026, we will walk (virtually) in New Zealand covering 2422 km over the next 12 months. We will start in the south (Invercargill) and head north towards Dunedin, Nelson, Wellington, Tauranga, Hamilton to Auckland.
There will be 12 stages, each stage lasting a month. This is the first stage - we're walking from Slope Point (southernmost point of NZ) to Invercargill and finish at a town called Milton! We've got 31 days to cover 210 km (6.9 km a day).
Your kilometres will be recorded here in a table:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1meMre2bs-6uAgCz6uUXrUldyPbFtMleOwAJHjC1zdCc/edit?usp=sharing
So measure your distance every time you walk out of the house using your phone or Fitbit or smart watch. Along the way, do upload some photos of your walk to inspire the group :)
Instructions:
(1) Use a Fitbit or smart watch or smartphone and measure your walking distance every day. On the phone, there are many free apps like Google Fit, Apple Health, Runkeeper, Strava, etc.
(2) Please write your daily and cumulative distance walked in the comments section often - this will help us motivate each other :)
(3) At the end of month, please let me know your total distance covered. I will record this on a spreadsheet and repeat this every month.
(4) If you are short of kilometres - don't give up! - you can do extra kilometres in future months and it will count towards the final tally.
(5) If you do extra kilometres, you can 'bank' it and use it for bonus stages or for periods where you are busy and cannot walk as much.
(6) If you joined us late, don't worry - your fitness tracker should have recorded your steps/distances in the previous months - just add these earlier distances to your current walks.
Stay safe and healthy, and have fun!
A bit of history:
Our walking group is based in Melbourne and we did walks on weekends. Then COVID-19 struck. We started doing virtual walks during lockdown. After lockdowns ended - we decided to continue with the virtual walks because we wanted to keep in touch. Our virtual walks so far:
2021 - McMillan's Track (220 km)
2021 - Goldfields Track (210 km)
2021 - Larapinta Trail (223 km)
2021 - Great South West Walk (250 km)
2022 - Walk Around Victoria (2500 km)
2023 - Melbourne-Sydney-Melbourne (2280 km)
2024 - Great Britain Walk (2300 km)
2025 - Japan Walk (2380 km)
Regards,
Fi
Author of Urban Trails Melbourne (https://amzn.to/2LcrC6U)
and Marathon Training For Walkers and Beginners (https://amzn.to/2CxOjNq)
Follow our group's Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/marathonwalking/
Like our Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/marathonwalking/
P.S. please note this is a virtual meetup.