Walking a half marathon is a feat in itself but for one former Whangarei woman it is just the warm-up for trekking the length of New Zealand for charity.
Rebecca Cox, 25, took part in the Whangarei half marathon on Sunday but her main event will be walking the length of the country on the Te Araroa trail starting next month. The Te Araroa trail is a 3000km stretch from Cape Reinga to Bluff and is is made up of 130 tracks. Ms Cox said the trail will take her "up in to the mountains, down on to the beaches".
"I love hiking, I love outdoors. I'm really looking forward to the challenge," she said.
It is likely to take five months to complete her trek of New Zealand, that she will mostly do alone, and will set off on Labour Weekend. She plans to sleep in a tent, a hammock, a hut or treat herself to a backpackers' once a week, or once every two weeks.
Her partner, Daniel Vochezer, will join her for the South Island leg, where for much of the time there will be three 10-day stints before they come across civilisation. The architectural graduate hopes to raise $10,000 through her walk for Oxfam to build safe, cyclone-proof training centres in Vanuatu.
The centres are to be built with permanent, solid materials so the community can shelter when the cyclones hit. Many of the training centres in Vanuatu are built with traditional bush materials that struggle to handle each cyclone season and have to rebuild their centres each year.
"I'm really passionate about the opportunity to future-proof. It's a fantastic project," said Ms Cox.
There will be many issues facing her during her walk between October and April. Poor timing with the weather is a main concern for her and she said, "the weather will play a large part and hopefully not getting lost".
The Whangarei half marathon, which is a part of the Whangarei fun run and walk, will be the third half marathon that she and her mother, Diane Cox, have walked.
They are hoping to complete it in under three hours.
"Mum and dad are probably the biggest supporters I've got," said Ms Cox, who attended Kamo High School.