Mikki Kragelund, of Cocoa Beach, Florida, will be setting off with Dutch friend Nina Oosterveer (24) on the more than 2400km journey from Cape Reinga to Bluff in the first week of January.
The two women have lived in Queenstown since April and met working together at waterfront restaurant Flame, where their mutual love of the outdoors resulted in them quickly becoming friends.
The duo began to concoct plans to "make a difference", with the journey inspired by Miss Kragelund's experience of skin cancer.
Her story is one familiar to many New Zealanders - of a childhood spent in the outdoors boating, camping, surfing and diving, sometimes wearing sunscreen, sometimes not.
However, just as the tanned 24-year-old was about to graduate, she had, at the insistence of an uncle who was a dermatologist, a skin check-up.
The test was positive for skin cancer.
She was diagnosed with stage 3 melanoma, a malignant skin cancer fatal if left untreated.
"With so much time spent in the sun, my family put their foot down to say I had to go to a dermatologist," she said.
"It's definitely something you would never expect to happen, to deal with that, but if I had waited four months more, even with the chemo I would have had less than a 10% chance of survival."
After numerous visits to the doctor, 14 different biopsies and one major surgery, Miss Kragelund has now graduated, is cancer-free and is using sunblock religiously.
She hopes to alert people to the dangers of the sun in New Zealand.
"I wince when I see people walking around crisped," she said.
With sponsors Queenstown Gym, the two are now enthusiastically training for the trip. They have been tramping, and cycling Queenstown's numerous hills.
The women also have other helpers and sponsors, including Outside Sports and Miss Oosterveer's employer, Brazz Bar and Grill.
Miss Oosterveer says cycling in New Zealand is different from cycling in Holland, "which has one hill, not even big enough to call a mountain".
Neither of the women has much road cycling experience.
"We will be hurting on the hills and no doubt end up hugging the road or pavement at some point, but we will make it."
Along the way, the pair have budgeted to camp most nights, save one night a week at a hostel to do laundry - at least until their mothers fly in to join them on the last leg.
"If they want to put us up in a hotel because 'they have sore feet', that's fine with us," Miss Kragelund laughed.
They invited people to join them on their ride and donate to the cause.
Skin cancer is the most common cancer in New Zealand.
So far, the women's fundraising goal is $5000, but they feel confident they can surpass that on their way to "giving back" for help and support received.
