He regularly walked about 15km during training, but that was a far cry from the 31km the suicide prevention campaigner will need to walk each day if he wants to get to the Far North in 76 days.
Lightly puffing as he walked north along State Highway 1, at the weekend, Mr Taaffe (30) said the niggling pain he was suffering would not detract from his mission or his message.
"One day at a time, that's how I'll take the walk and that's how it is with depression.
"Getting through, one day at a time."
The Christchurch-based university student last week embarked on his 2000km trek to raise awareness of depression, suicide, and suicide prevention.
His Dare2 Hope project is a personal response to the country's ongoing suicide "tragedy": a friend committed suicide when he was in his mid-teens, and his cousin, Marsha, took her own life in 2007.
Last year, 541 New Zealanders committed suicide.
"I worked it out that one in 7000 New Zealanders is affected first-hand by suicide, then there are the family and the friends, the schools and the communities," Mr Taaffe said.
"Drink-driving and speeding on the roads gets so much attention, and they should, but it seems to me that we have a real problem in suicide that needs just as much attention."
Depression was closely linked to suicide, and people with depression needed to know their sense of hopelessness, and feelings of a lack of purpose and value, could pass with intervention.
Mr Taaffe said he was buoyed by the support for his work and message.
"I've said it would be all worth it if just one person could get inspired and see there is an alternative to suicide.
"One person has already said they feel like they were that one person, and that's amazing."
Mr Taaffe expects to arrive at Cape Reinga on January 28.
