Why a New Zealander travelled across the world to Toronto to deliver a letter

Walking up to a home in midtown Toronto, Jonny Beardmore has come from across the world to do something both profound and quite simple.

“I've come to deliver a letter. A letter from the Galapagos Islands,” he said.

• Download our app to get alerts on your device
• Get the latest local updates right to your inbox

Originally from New Zealand, Beardmore found a small mail box while on Floreana Island that relies on the goodwill of travellers to get letters to their destination. The idea is, if you see a letter from your home country, take it with you.

"You're encouraged to put a letter in and then it go through the letters and see if you find one. And then you're encouraged to deliver it by hand,” he said.

Beardmore went much further. Back on March 1, 2024 he took 50 letters and is using the next year to travel the world and deliver each one by hand.

He said that people have been initially a little taken a back by the surprise.

"But then they're opening up their house in their home and they're telling me the most amazing stories of your life," he said.

Beardmore, who is documenting his travels on Instagram, is calling the adventure the 'Galapagos Postman Challenge.'

So far, he has already been to Antarctica, through South and Central America, The United States, and now, Canada. He first stopped in Victoria, B.C. and later Winnipeg. His progress can be tracked online, on an interactive map.

A map by ZeroSixZero is tracking the progress of Johnny Beardmore, who is hand-delivering letters from the Galapagos Islands to addresses across the world. (ZeroSixZero map website)

Beardmore said that the reason he is doing this is as a way to remember his father, who died 18 months ago from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). He is hoping to raise $100,000 in the process, while showing how connected we all are and how this disease touches those closer to us than we may think.

"The reality is it doesn't feel very rare because as someone shares their story, someone else will say, ‘my aunt, my mom, my brother, my friend,'" Tammy Moore, CEO of ALS Society of Canada, said.

ALS is a disease that affects an estimated 4,000 Canadians, and over 200,000 people worldwide. It progressively paralyzes people due to the brain’s inability to communicate with muscles in the body.

“We take for granted the ability to move freely, to speak freely, to communicate around the world,” Beardmore said.

World 'so small and uniting' 

When CTV News Toronto joined Beardmore, he was heading to a house in the city's midtown. That's where letter number 17 was addressed. 

There, a woman by the name of Eva Lim answered the door. She asked, “Can I help you?” to which Beardmore explained himself and his mission.

Lim didn't recognize the postcard when she was handed it, however, she said it was in her daughter's handwriting. 

“Sorry for the shock,” Beardmore said.

Lim’s daughter, Stef, who is a veterinarian living in Toronto, sent the letter while on a trip to the Islands with her father last January.

When she opened the letter, she immediately called her daughter on FaceTime. Stef was amazed to meet Beardmore and see the postcard. 

“To have another person who has experienced something like that and then deliver it. It's also nice to know that the world is so small and uniting people,” Lim said. “So it’s also a really wonderful moment to share with another being.”

Beardmore has another letter to deliver in Toronto, and then one up north in Muskoka. After those are delivered, he has 31 more stops over the next eight  months.