Day 27 Jacksons to Bealey Spur

Walked by me and Rapid 45.5km Walked by Ella 13.5km 59513 steps
Total walked so far 943.3km Total raised so far $10,600.82 This excludes money in the collecting buckets which has not been banked.

My comments yesterday about one lane bridges clearly upset the trolls who live under them. There were 5 one lane bridges on today's walk and I never collected anything at them.

The weather was overcast on the west coast and bright blue on the east coast. A cool southwesterly blowing on the pass and in exposed parts on the Canterbury side.

I was 10 minutes late leaving the motel in Hokitika and it took 10 minutes longer than I estimated to get to Jacksons so I was 20 minutes late starting. Ella walked the first 7km towards Aickens. I crossed the road to drop her off immediately after a railway crossing. When I went to cross back an SUV was coming but I could make it if I hurried, so I ran. I was nearly halfway across the road when the alarm bells started ringing and frightened the crap out of me.

I managed to lose a bit more time walking to Otira so I was 40 minutes late after a rest stop there. Lyndall was unable to get away from work so wasn't able to walk over the pass with me. My estimate had been 2 hours to the summit and 45 minutes own to Arthur's Pass. It took 3 hours up but only 40 minutes going down with Ella wanting me to go faster. There was hardly any snow around on the Otira side of the gorge but on the Arthur's Pass side lots of shaded spots still had snow - there was none on the road though.

For those not familiar with Arthur's Pass It climbs from 462m at the bottom of Otira Gorge to 920m in 6km. Most of that is done in about 3km of 16% gradient. This includes the Otira Viaduct which is 500m long and crosses a loop in the Otira River - the start and end are both on the north bank of the river. Arthur's Pass township is 750m high so the descent is much shorter.

Fiona did a good job with the collecting bucket at the viewing point in Otira Gorge and at Arthur's Pass. I only got about 6 donations today while on the road but a couple were large ones.

My left heel was hurting coming into Arthur's Pass so another layer of padding was placed on it. This was great until 4km from the finish when it started to hurt again. When I took the dressings off it had burst.

The road fro Arthur's Pass to Klondike Corner is rather difficult. It is twisty, often narrow and with minimal verges in some places. Often the left side of the road was much easier to walk on which meant the traffic was from my back.

It was rather late, and starting to get cold when I finally finished at 5:45pm. Fiona after driving all day didn't feel like walking so we went to the cafe across the road where I had a good chat with two English women, whose names I promptly forgot.

Raggety the elephant now has a travelling companion. Fiona brought a Daffodil Day bear she has christened Pat with her.

We are staying at the Mountain House in Arthur's Pass tonight. They have a strict no dogs policy but I wrote them an email with the full 6 part harmony. They not only agreed to the dogs staying (in the van) but gave us a room free of charge.