Over the next couple of weeks I will be writing about each of the seven Great Walks that I am attempting to run in one very long week - the Mizone 7in7 Challenge as it is now known.

The first track is to be found in the Urewera National Park, one and a half hours south of Murupara, along a very windy dirt road that masquerades as a State Highway. It's almost 20 years since I was there to tramp around Lake Waikaremoana (before it earned the glorious title of a Great Walk) so it'll be interesting to see how much it has changed since achieving international recognition.

Each of the seven Great Walks I'm running will present its own unique challenges. At 43km, Waikaremoana is only just over marathon length, so this in itself is not too daunting. But the high point of the track, Panekiri Bluff, had 2 metres of snow on it very recently, so the weather can be pretty wild and we can take nothing for granted.

This is also one of the most 'technical' tracks to run. Thankfully for us purists, the trail is not all neat, smooth gravel paths more befitting an English country garden. There are plenty of gnarly routes and muddy puddles waiting to ensnare the misplaced foot and twist the careless ankle.

The reward will be the awesome views across the lake and the endless forests beyond; that otherworldliness that the New Zealand bush can somehow conjure up like no other environment I have encountered.

Joining me on Day One will be two good friends, Wade Gillooly and Paul Rogers (both from Auckland), and one young fella who I'm still yet to meet: Ash Scott from Gisborne, who earned his slot by pledging to raise lots of money for the Leukaemia & Blood Foundation when we auctioned off the spare places.

We expect to make it around in a little over seven hours and from there, after a cold dip in the lake, I will be driven 3½ hrs to National Park, our base camp for Day Two.... more about that in the next blog!