Day 22 Westport to Punakaiki

Walked by me and Rapid 46.3km Walked by Ella 15km 62084 steps

Today was supposed to be a mind boggling 56.7km. However I walked some of it yesterday and kept it down to soemthing I could manage.

The staff at ANZ Westport met at the branch at 6:30am to see me off before going to breakfast. I tried to persuade them to walk 10 minutes with me but to no avail. My camera got wet yesterday and there was condensation in the lens. The picture at Wesport was useless. I hope the one that Sharon took with her phone turns out better. The camera is working OK now after having been kept warm and dry all day.

I was 15 minutes late getting going. The traffic in Westport is quite heavy at that time of day and I had to wait to cross Palmerston St before the bridge. The walk out to the crossroads was pretty boring. Alex met me there and drove me over the bit I walked yesterday (Addisons Flat and Virgin Flat).

Between Virgin Flat and Charleston the road climb over Costello Hill. After Charleston it climbs over 2 large hills, one each side of the Four Mile River, no idea what it is four miles from as it is in the middle of nowhere. The road then descends to the coast at Tiropahi. There is one final climb over Gentle Annie Rocks before reaching Punakaiki.

By Charleston (15km) I had lost 40 minutes of the time I had saved yesterday by walking the extra kilometres. At Punakaiki Rocks I was 50 minutes ahead which meant I had gone 1hr 10minutes over the time for the distance walked.

The weather forecast was for rain but somehow the rain dodged around us and I had only about 10 minutes of light rain all day. There was a cold southwesterly blowing from mid morning. It was only the climb up Gentle Annie Rocks I removed my Parka. It did however start to rain as soon as we arrived at the camping ground.

Rapid was very happy all day - apart from getting a prickle in his foot about 5km form the end, once I removed it he was back to normal.

We had dinner tonight with Toby and Martina. After that I popped down to the pub to collect a little money. The pub was quiet and the dogs were allowed inside.