I Love a Good Challenge.

I've noted before that I have made it a goal to walk as many of the streets as I possibly can. And I'm well over halfway there. So I love keeping an eye out for promotions and contests that reward New Yorkers for this. Here is a roundup of some of my favorites from the past:

1. The Big Egg Hunt
In 2014, a conservation charity, Elephant Family, organized a massive Fabergé egg hunt for Easter around NYC's 5 boroughs. Over 260 massive egg sculptures, each about 2.5-feet tall, created by famous & local artists, were hidden across the city, after which they were sold at auction. Each egg was geotagged, and you could unlock them through a smartphone app, allowing the organizers to keep track of who had found (and unlocked) the most. It was a fun contest, taking me from Manhattan to Staten Island to Queens to a number of great community gardens in the Bronx and Brooklyn. Alas, I topped out at around 240, and did not win.
(Click image below to go to a full gallery of the all the eggs I found)

2. The Tour de Hills
This past summer, the locally-based Ample Hills Creamery company had a contest to encourage New Yorkers to visit all 6 of their NYC locations over the course of the summer (from Rockaway Beach to Gowanus to Hells Kitchen!). Visit all 6 in a single day, and be entered in their exclusive Hillionaires Club and receive a number of prizes. On a hot August day, I was game. Going by foot and public transit only, I completed the challenge in a record 6 hours. Won some prizes, got a lot of sun. Not sure I would recommend eating 6 servings of ice cream in a single day, however.

3. Historic Districts Council - Preservation Pays Challenge
Also this year, the excellent Historic Districts Council, which works to ensure the preservation of significant historic neighborhoods, buildings and public spaces in NYC, encouraged New Yorkers to visit 6 specific sites of historical & architectural significance around the city, taking a selfie at each, and posting it to social media. These places included the Battery Maritime Building, Carnegie Hall, the Washington Square arch, and some gorgeous residential buildings in Queens and Brooklyn. The winners would get a visit to the very off-limits upper floors of the historic Woolworth Building downtown. With the contest completed, I am scheduled to attend an exclusive party at the Woolworth this coming Spring. Look for pictures of that on my Instagram then... in the meantime, here is a collage of my winning selfies.

I am always looking for new challenges around the city, to push me to see new places . If you know of any, or thought of one of your own, please let me know!