Can you walk 1,200km in a year? That's the premise of Walk1200km, a New Zealand walking challenge that one contributor to Wilderness Magazine has now completed for four years running. The verdict after all that mileage: no walk has ever been regretted. Not the short ones. Not the soggy urban tramps in bad weather. Every single outing turned out to be worth it.

The idea behind the challenge is refreshingly simple. Log 1,200km of walking over twelve months — an average of a bit over 23km a week, or roughly 3.3km a day — and you've hit the target. There's no fixed route, no entry fee to a famous trailhead, and no requirement to be in the backcountry. You can count city footpaths, beach strolls, park loops and hills near home. That flexibility is the point: the challenge treats walking as a habit rather than an event.

The most interesting takeaway from four years of it is that "boring" walks don't really exist. Even a route you've done dozens of times changes with the weather, the light and the season. An ordinary suburban path in the rain is still a discovery of sorts — and the writer's conclusion is that the regret never comes from lacing up the shoes, only from not doing it in the first place. That's a useful nudge for travellers who skip a morning stroll because it's grey out or the destination doesn't look like a highlight on the map.

For visitors to New Zealand, the mindset maps neatly onto the country itself. Beyond the headline tramps — the Milford Track, the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, the Routeburn — New Zealand is laced with short urban and suburban walks: coastal paths in Wellington, volcanic loops in Auckland, riverside tracks in almost every town. You don't need a multi-day expedition to experience the place on foot. A daily 5km habit, sustained over a two-week trip, will show you more of a town than any bus tour.

Who is this for? Anyone who wants more movement in their travels without committing to a thru-hike, and locals looking for a realistic fitness goal with an exploratory payoff. The challenge is free to join and trackable through the official Walk1200km website, with a community of walkers logging kilometres across the country. The lesson scales anywhere in the world: pick a yearly target, count every step outdoors, and let the small walks accumulate into something bigger.