Recent University of Otago graduate Ben Reeves will take the challenge with his two friends, Tane Tarlton-Kraus and Alex Smith, to raise money for Movember.
The group will begin their 60km trek near Dargaville on the west coast of Northland, crossing by land before finishing south of Whangarei on the east coast.
The key challenge is not deviating 25m from a straight line from one coast to the other.
The trio decided to embark on the challenge after Mr Smith’s father, Darrell, died earlier this year from prostate cancer.
The challenge was "in honour of Dad," Mr Smith said.
They decided to raise money for Movember because it focuses heavily on mental health and prostate cancer, and both causes were very close to his heart.
When he was young, his mother committed suicide and, with the recent death of his father, Mr Smith and his friends decided they needed to do something big.
"Dad really liked stuff like this and he would have thought the challenge was really cool. He always liked the really out-there stuff that was unique and never attempted before.
"Going through that was really difficult, but I had my best mates by my side."
Mr Reeves said one of the last conversations he had with Mr Smith’s dad was about wanting to do something for Movember.
"We didn’t know what we wanted to do — we just knew we wanted it to be big and meaningful.
"Darrell loved the outdoors, so it’s kind of like the perfect thing to do in his name."
The boys planned their route, checked all the natural hazards they would encounter on the way and asked permission from all the people whose land they would cross.
Their biggest challenge would be using a raft to cross the Wairoa River, which they expect to be about 450m wide.
"We’ve talked to the locals what time would be best to cross, and high tide would be best — hopefully we don’t capsize or get washed away," Mr Smith said.
The route would take four days. On the last day they expected to encounter 1km of straight gorse and mangroves.
"That’s not looking like it’s going to be too pretty."
The trio are set to start their trek today.
They originally hoped to raise $5000, but they had already reached that target so their new goal was $8000. If they reach that they will carry on raising money.
They intend to document their entire trip on their Instagram account.
A Movember donation page has been set up to support the cause.
