It's like a scene from Forrest Gump.
On August 1 last year, Polly Letofsky left her home in Colorado to go for a stroll. More than five months later she's still walking, still at the early stages of a three and a-half year, 46,000km trip to help the fight against breast cancer.
Polly, who breezed through Picton on Friday en route to Nelson, said she got the idea for the trip when she was 12. She read a newspaper article about a man who had completed a similar walk.
"That planted the seed, and as I grew older I created this great love of walking and decided to go for it."
Polly wanted the walk to benefit women's health. A friend's battle with cancer led Polly to the breast cancer cause.
The aim of her trip is to promote breast screening programmes and raise US$350,000 for research.
Having completed the first North American leg of the trip, she began her walk through New Zealand on November 1 at Cape Reinga. After a quick break in Nelson this week, she will spend most of January and February walking through the South Island before leaving for Australia. Her journey will continue through Asia and Europe before taking Polly back to the US to complete the trip in 2003.
Polly walks about 28km a day and has already been through five pairs of shoes.
If all goes according to plan, she will be the first woman to walk around the world.
She says she did not have to travel through New Zealand to clock up the necessary miles for the journey, but a period living here inspired her.
"I lived in New Zealand from 1989 to 1993 up in Auckland and I have always had this fantasy of walking the length of it."
The 37-year-old says she hasn't been disappointed and has been struck particularly by New Zealand's famed hospitality.
"I've actually gained a little weight since I've been on the road because people are feeding me so much."
The contact with people from all cultures and walks of life has been the best thing about the journey so far.
"It's neat to get out of my cubby-hole of the world in Vail, Colorado and meet an avocado farmer; and someone who owns an olive orchard and a Ilama farmer and some of the Navajo Indian people."
Polly left a well-paid job in a Colorado hotel to go on her journey. Her colleagues were amazed when she sold all her belongings and left - even if she had warned them.
"They knew it when they hired me. I said, 'I'm going to walk around the worId and I'm leaving August 1, 1999', and they said, 'Yeah no problem, she's full of it'."
In New Zealand, Polly is promoting a free breast cancer screening programme for women.
Anyone wanting more information can call 0800 270 200.
