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Why an 'average bloke' from Wollongong is preparing to traverse New Zealand on foot

Wollongong bar manager Josh Storey will walk the entire length of New Zealand later this year. (ABC Illawarra: Justin Huntsdale)

Josh Storey is the kind of guy who, in a "random moment", decided to walk from Nowra to Wollongong on the New South Wales south coast. 

It was an 81-kilometre walk, but it planted the seed of achieving something much bigger.

He then walked from Newcastle to Wollongong — a distance of 266 kilometres.

Walking from Newcastle to Wollongong plants the seed of something bigger (Supplied: Josh Storey)

Now he's looking beyond the horizon. At the end of this year he will take on the Te Araroa trail from the top to the bottom of New Zealand.

"For me, it's a good sense of understanding my brain better," he said.

Josh Storey says being self-sufficient as a teenager has prepared him for dealing with adversity in life. (ABC Illawarra: Justin Huntsdale)

"It's a better way to see the world as well because you get a better understanding of where you are and how far you're going.

"It's a beautiful way of seeing things."

Independent childhood bred toughness

For Mr Storey, long walks and long skates were a major part of his childhood.

The Te Araroa Trail runs from the top to the bottom of New Zealand. (Supplied: Pinterest)

His mother did not drive and his father has Parkinson's disease, so he would have to find ways to get himself to school and his two jobs. Usually, that was by foot or by skateboard.

"I'm an independent person and from a young age I had to be independent," he said.

"I had to get myself from A to B and that could mean skating home at three or four in the morning, but I look back now and appreciate the time I had to myself and it helped me a lot for my future."

Mr Storey says the New Zealand walk, which he intends to do with almost no help,  will be about 3,000km long and take him about four months.

Mr Storey faces a gruelling trek, but the scenery — like The Remarkables rising above Lake Wakatipu in Queenstown — will be spectacular. (ABC Gold Coast: Kimberley Bernard)

Preparing the body for what's to come

Despite the enormous stamina required to traverse New Zealand, Mr Storey is keeping his preparation simple.

He is working with a personal trainer to prepare his body for carrying considerable weight, but his training will not include any enormous walks.

"It's a lot of conditioning and getting my mind mentally ready," he said.

"I'm fortunate that now I'm very mentally strong, but it's about getting the body used to what it's about to encounter.

"I'm absolutely not walking in the lead-up to it.

"Even if it takes me a bit longer, I'll be pushing every day."

Mr Storey is leaving his job as a bar manager in Wollongong to embark on his New Zealand journey. (ABC Illawarra: Justin Huntsdale)

Mental health charity behind big walk

Mr Storey will be raising money and awareness for Illawarra-based charity Talk To Me Bro.

The mental health organisation runs an early intervention program to reduce the rates of male suicide, as well as weekly social meet-ups.

"When I was looking for a new charity, I definitely wanted to keep it on the mental health side of things," he said.

"I go pretty much every Friday for their morning session where we go for a swim, have an ice bath or go for a walk and have a coffee.

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