Day 20 Newton Flat to Berlins

Walked by Rapid and me 43.8km Walked by Ella 13km 54774 steps.

Today the west coast delivered iots rain. It wasn't hard but it continued all day except for an hour at Inangahua.

Alex did most of the packing of the van on Sunday night so it was a quick get away this morning. With a 6am alarm I was still walking at 7am. I did extra kilometres the previous 2 days so today was reduced from 46.5km. After a days rest I was feeling really fit and ran up 5.5km in the first hour. Ella and Rapid were both quitre spritely and enjoying the walk. As I mentioned yesterday the verge in the Upper Buller Gorge is mostly moss so it is soft on their feet. The draw back is that the west side of the road having a drain means that most of the time to Iron Bridge I had to walk on the east side with the traffic at my back. Plus side is there isn't much traffic in the Upper Buller.

The first break was at the Earthquake Slip lookout. There was no view today other than of mist. I was quite surprised when I got there that Alex wasn't there. I got about anotheer 50m down the road when he cam back up the gorge. He had forgotten to get the thrmos filled when he bought food and had gone on down the gorge hoping to find somewhere to fill it without success - the next place was Inangahua along way off.

I was on time when I set off towards Lyell, where I didn't stop. No traffic on the Lyell bridge so that was easy. On the down hill to Iron Gate the road straightens out and the traffic speed increases. I got quite a surprise at how quickly one car was upon me. Iron Bridge has traffic light control. I observed the sequence during my route survey and knew I could not cross the bridge in the time allowed by the lights. Alex went ahead to stop any traffic coming on in the opposite direction once I was on the bridge but this was unnecessary as there was none.

There is a little privately held land between the Upper Buller Scenic Reserve and Iron Bridge but it is all fairly run down. On the other Westport side on Iron Bridge it is a very different affair with prosperous looking dairy farms - many have been "hump and hollowed" and have less pugging than the neighbours who still have "flat" fields. The verge after Iron Bridge is on the west side so that I was no longer having my back to the traffic. The verge is mostly grass and with it raining all day I was glad I had gortex shoes as regular shoes would have been soaked through.

I took a second break at Ben's Creek, after which Ella walked for another 5km. I continued on to Inangahua where I sat down and had a cup of coffee and a bite to eat. I was aboutr 20 minutes behind schedule on leaving Inangahua and remained that much behind for the rest of the day.

The railway bridge at Inangahua is narrow but short so I easily got across when no traffic was coming. There is a moderately long one lane bridge over the Inangahua River. It has a ledge so rather than trying to stop the traffic I got Rapid up on the ledge behind me and walked across. Nothing came while we were crossing so it made no difference.

Between Newton Flat and Inangahua I had let Rapid off lead several times, every time he bounced around and was a really happy dog. There was also one occasion when was able mto have both dogs off lead. Because it is hard to watch 2 dogs I need a wider verge ot have both off. After Inangahua ther was 1080 liad so I coudn't let the dogs off the lead. Berlins is on the edge of the 1080 area so hopefully tomorrow they get a chance at off lead.

After the rest stop at Inangahua Alex went down to Buller Adventure Tours and organisied the jet boat across the river tomorrow. This will take me from Nine Mike Creek on the south bank of the Buller River to Nine Mile Road on the North Bank of the river. There will be almost no movement down stream. This allows me to come into Westport on one road and leave on another rather than using the same road twice.

The first 5km from Inangahua Junction are spent going around 3 sides of Rosemount. This hill has striking white cliffs in some places. Alex got back when I was just over 2km from Berlins so ella got to walk those last 2km.

Unfortunately I couldn't find the instructions to Sharon Clark's house and Alex and I spent about 20 minutes "lost" about 200m from Shraon's home before she answered my text with instructions. Sharon and Steve have a boxer, Jack. As I expected Rapid wasn't very happy in the yard with Jack and both he and Ella fairly soon willing got back in the van. They did come back in after we had eaten and they manged to pretty much ignore Jack.

I have decided that the 56.7km from Westport to Punakaiki in one day is too much for me. As tomorrow will be a short day I will go a few kilometres out of town and walk 7 to 10km. So I will still do the distance - just not all in one day. If I get an extra 10km done tomorrow that gives me days of 43 and 46 km rather than 33 and 46km - a bit more balanced.