'Dude where's my walking stick?': Chatham man pens number one best-selling book
New author and former Chatham-Kent resident, Kevin Moore, has penned an Amazon best-selling book about his 69-day hike across New Zealand’s South Island.
“Dude, Where’s My Walking Stick” has reached the number one spot in less than six months in both Canada and Australia, according to Moore.
“In my mind at that time, I wasn’t thinking that it would be a best-selling book,” he says.
Moore says his book is the result of journal entries between December 2019 and February 2020, inspired by his ailing mother, who died of cancer.
“One of the last things my mom told me actually was to never stop adventuring,” Moore recalls. “I think my mom would be absolutely ecstatic! She would be so proud of me.”
Kevin Moore, former Chatham-Kent resident, has penned a best-selling novel about his 69-day hike across New Zealand’s South Island. (Courtesy Kevin Moore)
Moore tells CTV News the hike is called the ‘Te Araroa.’ A popular trek more than 3,000 km along New Zealand’s coastal sand or the ridgelines of forested ranges and beyond.
“It is in sections,” Moore explains. “So, it’s not like I walked for 69 days straight. The longest section was nine days, most sections were between five and seven days.”
Moore says he believes his book has caught on with readers because he’s just a regular person.
“I wasn’t prepared,” Moore adds. “I feel it is more for the average person rather than someone reading something that is very intense by someone who trained their whole lives. I was not in great shape in any sense of the word.”
Now living in Vancouver, Moore hopes to travel to South America to continue living his mother’s adventurous advice.
“I still don’t even consider myself an author. I wrote this book as a little bit of something to get over grief,” Moore notes. “Almost two years later, my legs are still indestructible! They can go forever!”
Kevin Moore's best-selling novel "Dude, where's my walking stick?" is about his 69-day hike across New Zealand’s South Island. (Courtesy Kevin Moore)
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Amid concerns over 'collateral damage' Trudeau, Freeland defend capital gains tax change
Facing pushback from physicians and businesspeople over the coming increase to the capital gains inclusion rate, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his deputy Chrystia Freeland are standing by their plan to target Canada's highest earners.
Bodies found by U.S. authorities searching for missing B.C. kayakers
United States authorities who have been searching for a pair of missing kayakers from British Columbia since the weekend have recovered two bodies in the nearby San Juan Islands of Washington state.
Tom Mulcair: Park littered with trash after 'pilot project' is perfect symbol of Trudeau governance
Former NDP leader Tom Mulcair says that what's happening now in a trash-littered federal park in Quebec is a perfect metaphor for how the Trudeau government runs things.
'It's discriminatory': Individuals refused entry to Ontario legislature for wearing keffiyeh
Individuals being barred from entering Ontario’s legislature while wearing a keffiyeh say the garment is part of their cultural identity— and the only ones making it political are the politicians banning it.
Competition bureau finds 'substantial' anti-competitive effects with proposed Bunge-Viterra merger
The proposed merger of agricultural giants Viterra and Bunge is raising competition concerns from the federal government.
Douglas DC-4 plane with 2 people on board crashes into river outside Fairbanks, Alaska
A Douglas C-54 Skymaster airplane crashed into the Tanana River near Fairbanks on Tuesday, Alaska State Troopers said.
BREAKING Mounties will not be charged in shooting death of B.C. Indigenous man
Three Mounties in British Columbia will not face charges in the killing of a 38-year-old Indigenous man on Vancouver Island in 2021.
Canada's favourite sport to watch is hockey, survey shows
The 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs have already delivered a fever level of fan excitement in Canada.
'It's just so hard to let it go': Umar Zameer still haunted by death of Toronto police officer
“It's just so hard to let it go. I mean, everyone is telling me, ‘you have to move on,’ but I know someone is not here [anymore]. So I don't know how I will move on." That’s what Umar Zameer, the man recently acquitted in the death of a Toronto police officer, told CTV News Toronto in a sit-down interview on Tuesday.