Day 2 Upper Hutt to Greytown

After a brief breakfast I left Paul and Judes place about 6:30am. The footbridge across Hutt River is at the end of their street so the dogs were able to start out off lead. The first part of the route was through Harcourt Park, then along Akatarawa Rd to the Hutt River bridge at Birchville. From there the walkway along the Hutt River is used to get to State Highway 2 north of Emerald Hills. By the time I reached the highway it was fully light so no problems about visibility.

A few kilometres along State Highway 2 over Kaitoke Hill bought me to Incline Rd and then the Rimutaka Incline track. I meet 2 women walking a dog about 20 minutes along the incline track but that after that the dogs and I had the Incline Track to ourselves. One of the silly things I did when giving my pack to Alison yesterday was leaving my torch in it. Paul gave me a little LED but the Pakurathi Tunnel made it clear it wouldn't be much help through the Summit Tunnel. I thought I might be able to follow Rapid as his white markings would show up but once it got dark in the tunnels he fell in behind me. Ella was happy to charge off ahead but you can't see a black dog in the dark.

There were 2 short showers while going up the incline just heavy enough to make me put my coat on. I had a short rest and morning tea at the summit. I had taken the coats off the dogs once we reached the Incline Track but I put them back on before starting on the Summit Tunnel. The Summit Tunnel is 584m long. Fortunately since the last time I went through it 20 years ago the surface has been improved so walking through in the dark was not a major problem. Interestingly when Ella got close to the exit here coat did not reflect any of the light coming in through the portal to me and for a few minutes I thought she had managed to get out of it somewhere in the tunnel.

The trip down the hill went really well with the cloud clearing on the Wairarapa side but the wind was stronger. I reached the Cross Creek car park in time for lunch. The dogs devoured theirs in seconds and got impatient with me taking a half hour break. From the car park along Cross Creek Rd to Western Lake Rd is only 2km but I had to get the dogs off the road twice when cars came past. Once on Western Lake Rd the dogs went back on the lead. The traffic was very light so I walked along the centre of the road so as to reduce camber strain on the ankles. The 9km to Featherston took me almost 2 hours and I was really ready for a scone and a cold drink by the time I got there.

The road from Featherston to Greytown is flat and boring. There are 2 corners, the first on the edge of Featherston and the other at the Tin Hut at Tauherenikau. The 7km from Tauherenikau to Greytown are perfectly straight. Rapid was a real pain on the on the Tauherenikau Bridge. He is afraid of heights and so refused to stay on the railing side of me where I was sure he was safe from the traffic. Even keeping him close to me on the traffic side was difficult and he kept trying to get out to the end of the lead and as far from the edge of the bridge as possible.

Arriving in Greytown I went past Shoc, the chocolate shop my daughter Fiona raves about. But after walking 50km was to tired to be bothered and carried on. A little further down the road a young primary school girl on the other side of the road was rather interested in Ella and Rapid. While conversing with her across the street I managed to walk straight past the day care centre where Alison works. Fortunately she had told me if got the church I had gone to far so I retraced my steps and found the huge Ladybirds sign on the fence I had managed to miss.

Alison wasn't supposed to leave work for another hour but one of her colleagues agreed to cover for her since very few children where still to be picked up. I went to the coffee bar across the street and ordered us coffees while we waited for Nick to come with thecar and take us back to Alison's house in Mangateretere Valley (10km from Carterton). Alison expecting me to be hungry after a huge walk prepared a vast meal but I could eat hardly any of it.

Alison's water pressure is pathetic to say the best and running a bath takes half an hour but it was really pleasant once I was in it. The blisters I had acquired yesterday had not got any worse on today's walk. Ella however was extremely stiff and was clearly going to struggle to make it back home. Alison ran me down to Clareville where Paul was doing training for Wairarapa Dog Training Club and Ella was given a ride back to Totara Park where she had started the day. Rapid and I decided to have an early night - of course he had to curl up against my legs.