These Best Friends are Trekking 3000km to Raise $100k for Charity

It’s not often you find someone crazy enough to walk across an entire country with you. Luckily for Hunter, her best friend Emily was equally keen to take on a life-changing adventure and shared the desire to turn the trek into something even greater.

Starting in October 2025, Emily and I will commence the Sole to Soul Project – walking the Te Araroa, a 3000km thru-hike along the length of New Zealand, to raise $100k for six mental health and environmental organisations across Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

How a Joke Turned into a 3000km Hike

It was March 2025 when Emily and I each found ourselves at our own life crossroads. We were both so wildly far away from any direction we expected to head in, grasping for a sense of what next steps to take.

I was on a back-and-forth journey between Canada (where I’m from) and Australia on working holiday visas, and had just begun recovery from unexpected emergency surgery days after returning to Australia. 

Emily was two years out from leaving her corporate career, trying to find a sense of belonging as an outdoor education instructor.

The Te Araroa (TA), initially mentioned as a joke, became the rational and logical answer as both of us asked the question: ‘What now?’.

Why we’re walking the length of New Zealand

Our decision to walk the Te Araroa to raise money for environmental conservation and mental health organisations comes from the desire, turned intrinsic need, to live out our passions and beliefs.

They are:

• To inspire others to make daring decisions
• To reduce the stigma surrounding talking freely and openly about mental health
• To highlight the interconnectivity between caring for our mental health and the health of the planet
• To show others that there’s beauty to be found after tragic loss and trauma

We want to prove to ourselves what we’re truly capable of, and to make a difference in the lives of others along the way.

People have often asked, ‘Why the Te Araroa?’, and honestly, we feel like the TA chose us. Not only is New Zealand a high bucket list location for us both, but the uniqueness of this thru-hike felt like an opportunity to grow and challenge ourselves in such big ways.

Between the diverse landscapes, challenging terrain, scale, beautiful culture, and incredible hospitality of the local TA community, we really couldn’t imagine a more perfect adventure to highlight the importance and interconnection of caring for our environment and mental health.

Why mental health and the environment are at the heart of Sole to Soul

It’s no secret that people feel better when they spend more time outdoors. Countless studies prove the scientific benefit it has on our nervous systems and overall quality of life, and yet there’s still such a disconnect in intentionally practising this.

This became painfully evident to me after unexpectedly losing my mom to suicide at the end of August 2019. 

I was heading into my final year of architecture studies just one week after her passing, and I knew that if I was going to survive the grief, I had to make some changes to the way I live.  

During the chaotic first year, I threw myself into reconnecting with the land in whichever way I could. At first, it was just short walks on the weekends while I finished my degree; then once summer hit, I practically lived outside. I planted trees for a couple of months, took myself on picnics, and went hiking at every chance.

But it was during my first solo camping trip on Vancouver Island, almost a year after my Mum’s passing, that I felt the beginning of my healing journey.

I remember it vividly. I was driving back from a few days camping on Sombrio Beach with nothing but myself, a journal, and a book for entertainment. I wound along forested roads, windows down, sun hitting my face as it shone through the pines, the ocean peeking through in the distance, and Astrovan by Mt Joy blasting through the speakers, when suddenly I found myself crying.

Crying was a daily occurrence for me at this time, but what made this moment different was realising these tears were coming from a place of hope and trust that everything would be okay. That I had the choice to make my life as beautiful as I wanted it to be, and that I could create many more memories like the ones I’d made on Sombrio Beach.   

Those three days were filled with slow exploration, sitting with the trees and ocean waves, many hours writing away my thoughts and feelings, and kindness from complete strangers turned friends. 

It was that moment I knew this was what I wanted my life to be filled with. 

Since then, intentional and consistent time outdoors and understanding the value of caring for the land we play, live, and love on has brought the most healing into my life. Along with self-connection, reassurance, community, and empowerment, too.

And Emily feels the same about her own experience with grief.

Meet Emily: From Corporate Life to the Te Araroa Trail

I’m Emily – experimenting with life through the lens of curiosity, connection to nature, and creativity.

I was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, raised in a small Ontario farm town, and I currently call beautiful British Columbia home.

I grew up with parents who encouraged outdoor exploration, and I’m from a bloodline of Explorers, which I strayed far from during high school. I followed the typical path: high school to university to corporate job. Until one day, a voice inside my head screamed at me, questioning everything I’d done to reach that point. 

I was deeply disconnected from myself, a sense of community, the deeply rooted values of my upbringing, intrinsic purpose, and connection to the natural world. I was so incredibly lost and this voice inside my head was like search and rescue, guiding me home. 

So I quit my corporate job and embarked on a three-month-long travel break. 

Through solo travel, self-reflection, and meaningful connections, I forged a renewed connection to myself and the Earth. 

In Costa Rica, I accidentally ended up at a week-long retreat with the world’s leading therapists, doctors, and psychology academics (I was looking for yoga). I arrived unshowered, with my backpack, on a tuk-tuk, while everyone else appeared very put together and at least ten years older than me. I remember quietly crying because I felt so out of place, young, and confused about how I ended up there. 

By the end of the week, it was clear that I’d been brought there for a reason. The synchronicities that happened in the following weeks helped me build a stronger trust in myself and a knowing that the universe has my back, even if it doesn’t feel like it.

I realised how interconnected mental health and nature are, and that I can blend my lifelong love for nature and passion for people development by pursuing a career in Outdoor and Experiential Education. 

Six months into this new career, it came to a grinding halt when a very close friend, who inspired me on the path, tragically passed away – the same day my grandmother unexpectedly passed as well. I paused any career exploration and focused on taking care of my mental health instead.

Since then, I’ve lived experimentally and am creating a life guided by curiosity, gratitude, grief, joy, and connection to the natural world. 

I considered going back to school, but when the opportunity to hike the Te Araroa with Hunter arose, I immediately knew this was the type of education I was searching for; learning from the land and listening to those who have been taking care of it for thousands of years.

The Ripple Effect of Care

We believe that when we care for the environment, we simultaneously care for our mental health.

We want to show others what’s possible when we care for our minds and the planet. We believe this can have a ripple effect and make great change. We’ve seen it in ourselves, and we want others to experience it too.

Healing is a rocky journey, and one that never ends – but when you find the right tools, and learn to take care of the land, you realise she’ll be there to take care of you too.

The 6 Charities We’re Raising Money For

When we decided to raise funds for both mental health and environmental organisations, it became increasingly important that we give back to the places we’ve called (and are about to call) home.

We want to give back to the communities that’ve held so much space for us in this next chapter of growth and healing. Which is why we’re fundraising for six organisations across Canada, Australia, and New Zealand – one mental health and one environmental in each.

We chose organisations that make a national impact.  

For the mental health organisations, we wanted a focus on suicide prevention and support, counselling services, and access to a variety of resources.  

For the environmental organisations, we wanted a focus on education programs, policy change involvement, and conservation.

With these criteria in mind, we landed on the Wirth Foundation and the David Suzuki Foundation in Canada, Lifeline and the Australian Conservation Foundation in Australia, and the Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand and Forest & Bird in New Zealand.

How you can be part of the Sole to Soul Project

As we draw nearer to the trailhead, we’re excited to share our journey with our supporters.

You can follow our journey and share on Instagram @soletosoul.project, donate to our fundraisers, financially support our multiple-month journey, or send us little words of encouragement to keep us going. Every small action means the world to us!

We’ll be posting regularly on @soletosoul.project, and sharing longer-form updates when we can on Substack and the Sole to Soul website. Keep an eye out for updates on how you can get directly involved!

If you’d like to donate, you can pick which organisations you want to support; there’s no limit on how many foundations you can donate to, or how often you donate! Donations are tax-deductible based on each organisation’s individual policies, and they’ll provide you with a tax-deductible receipt.

We’re beyond excited and nervous for this incredible challenge and are so grateful for the uplifting support we’ve already received. We can’t wait to hit the trail and bring you along with us!

And remember: YOU can do hard things. We’ll see you out there. 💛