With a rubbish bag lining his backpack, Ted Suurkivi set off to run nearly 60km and collect rubbish from the side of Mt Aspiring Rd.
He returned after 11 hours, completing 59km and collecting 41kg of rubbish.
Mr Suurkivi,who had no prior running experience, first noticed the rubbish while biking to work along Mt Aspiring Rd.
"The garbage I saw on the side of the road was always stuck in my brain. I thought I should do something about it," he said.
Setting out with 10 rubbish bags and a steak knife taped to the end of his tramping pole, Mr Suurkivi said he "wasn’t prepared for how much rubbish there really was".
Once a rubbish bag was full, he would tie it off, place it in the ditch and mark where the bag had been placed.
Mr Suurkivi’s partner, Katelyn Page, said the waste he picked up "really highlighted how big our roadside litter problem has become".
The couple were also using the run to raise awareness for local charity Food for Love, and were asking people to donate and support the organisation’s work after it helped the young family by supplying dinners after the birth of their child five months ago.
Mr Suurkivi said he wanted to inspire others to be active.
"You don’t need to be an athlete or trained professional to go out and just do fun things and you don’t need an event to go and push yourself."
An avid cyclist and hiker, Mr Suurkivi described himself as "not an unfit person" but said he expected the running to be mentally harder.
"I was in pain from 15km onwards already.
"My feet and my knees and my hips were already in pain.
"But mentally, I expected the running part being mentally harder."
