![\"Norm](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/4JUE6CB_image00003_jpeg.jpeg\")
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\nNorm Joe, from Startford, will unicycle the length of New Zealand before tackling the world.
\nPhoto: KATIE TODD .\/ RNZ\n<\/p>\n
A New Zealand man is hoping to break a Guinness World Record with a hobby he picked up during the Covid-19 lockdown.<\/p>\n
Norm Joe – from the Taranaki town of Stratford – is planning to unicycle around the world, beginning with the length of New Zealand.<\/p>\n
He set off from Bluff on 16 January, hoping to reach Cape Reinga by May.<\/p>\n
Joe will then fly to Alaska, cycling east across Canada and the United States, then fly to Portugal to continue across Europe and Asia.<\/p>\n
“I’m going around the world, basically, if I can,” he said.<\/p>\n
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\nNorm Joe on his unicycle.
\nPhoto: KATIE TODD \/ RNZ\n<\/p>\n
“It’s a big call at this stage, because I’ve only done 160 kilometres, but I need to do 29,000 kilometres for the Guinness World Record.”<\/p>\n
It had been less than six years since Joe learned how to unicycle – a Covid-19 hobby that became serious.<\/p>\n
“I started with a little 20-inch unicycle I found at a council clean-up – someone chucked it out, and I thought, well, that’s interesting. I took it home, I chucked it under the house, and then Covid hit, and then we had to lock up, so I started playing around with it in the backyard.<\/p>\n
“Once I could walk my dog with a unicycle, I thought, yeah, I’ve graduated. So I went and bought a proper one.”<\/p>\n
Joe then started commuting to work with the unicycle.<\/p>\n
“A unicycle is not like a bike. A unicycle feels more like an appendage or a prosthetic limb to me. It’s like skiing. I think this is what skiers and surfers feel. You just intuitively think and you move that way. A unicycle is the same, eh?”<\/p>\n
Joe would be raising money for the charity WaterAid – providing water, sanitation, and hygiene to the world’s poorest communities.<\/p>\n
He chose that as he was working as a draftsman for Sydney Water – rebuilding the infrastructure in the Australian city.<\/p>\n
It has only been a week since Joe began, but he said he loved the reaction from people who had seen him riding on his unicycle.<\/p>\n
“It’s a real conversation starter, I guess. People love it. They come up to me and talk.”<\/p>\n