Ben puts his feet up after 2000km

PHIL REID/The Dominion Post

ON THE ROAD AGAIN: Since retiring, Ben Thorpe has walked nearly every street between Cook Strait and Levin. "I wanted to get to know the local countryside a bit," he says

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Octogenarian Ben Thorpe has hung up his walking shoes after pounding more than 2000 kilometres of pavement covering virtually every street from Levin to Cook Strait.

The lean, 1.9-metre 80-year-old retired at the age of 65 after a career in forestry and conservation and decided that, rather than playing bowls or croquet, he would walk to keep fit.

He did not realise that, in time, he would cover the length of New Zealand in pavements documenting every street he could between Levin and central Wellington.

Armed with a packed lunch, map and camera, he set off every Wednesday – after checking the weather forecast – to discover new neighbourhoods and landscapes.

Eventually he covered all of the Hutt Valley, Wellington's northern and central suburbs, and the Rimutakas to the Petone foreshore, including Wainuiomata, the Western Hills, Horokiwi, Whiteman's Valley, Eastbourne and all of the Kapiti Coast.

His wife, Airdre, believes he started his expeditions because he was bored at home, but he says it was just what he was used to doing.

"I carried on walking to keep fit and wanted to get to know the local countryside a bit. Born in Otaki, I used to travel straight up and down the island and wanted to have a better look around."

Starting off from his home in Normandale Rd, Lower Hutt, to Petone, his expeditions became a retirement project when he started taking photos, mounting them in scrapbooks and meticulously marking the routes he covered.

Since then he has worn out at least one pair of sports-style walking shoes a year.

Karori, with more than 160 hilly streets, was his nemesis, but it allowed him to capture vistas out to sea on his camera.

Over the years he got a bit slower and last year he flagged the idea of taking photos, but still marked his routes on maps. Walking for three to four hours would be followed by a day of rest.

Last month he finished walking the flat streets of Levin, where his wife would drop him off and pick him up.

Over the 20 years only a couple of people have questioned what he was up to. A man in Khandallah, Wellington, became concerned when he spotted him taking a photo of his house, but when Mr Thorpe explained his project he rushed inside and returned with a camera to take a photo of the intrepid walker.

On some of his more remote jaunts, he came across hidden marijuana plots, the location of which he passed on to the police.

He has returned to a few streets to update extensions, but documenting all of them has been an impossible task.

Asked to help develop the Hutt River trail about six years ago, he was the first person to walk it and his timings are still used today.

He now lives in Paraparaumu and is about to move to a retirement village. On the eve of his 81st birthday, his day-long street jaunts are over, but he still plans to walk short distances around town.

"Some people play cricket or hockey – walking is what I do for enjoyment."

- © Fairfax NZ News