Day 30 Lake Lyndon to Mt Hutt

Walked today by Mike & Rapid 43.8km. 60008 steps. Walked by Ella - ask her. She "walked" 21.5km but spent 45 minutes hunting either side of the road so probably did at least another 5km.

The day started with a bit of drama. The sign at Lake Lyndon said Lyndon Rd, which runs down to Lake Coleridge was closed. So I put some food in my pack and Fiona set off on the long way around - 90km to get to the other end of my 14km walk.

Rapid was an absolute pest to begin with and kept kicking off shoes in excitement. The 3rd time he did it I left them off for about and hour until he had settled down. The lake was a great cause of excitement. Both dogs went wading several times but it must havce been cold as neither went for a swim. There was snow in every little gully along the edge of the lake.

Lyndon Rd had been newly metalled and graded. This made me skeptical about it being closed. A raod maintenance van came through about 40 minutes after I started walking and I think he corrected yesterdays error of not changing the sign back to open as when Fiona set off from Lake Lyndon at 8am after having a nap she said the sign had changed.

Once we were past the lake Ella started hunting. She flushed a hare and a rabbit but she is far too slow now to ever catch anything. But she had an absolute ball running around like a much younger dog.

The other issue with freshly graded roads is that there is nowhere to walk out of the gravel. I was wearing shoes, not boots, and me feet got thoroughly softened up by the uneven surface. There was also the slipping and sliding when the stones rolled under your feet.

I thought there was a brisk wind north-west blowing at Lake Lyndon but once I got into the Rakaia valley it was much stronger. Coming off the mountain it was cold, my parka stayed on all day. Descending from the high country to Lake Coleridge the road zig-zags but basically heads north so the wind was either in my face or else I was having to lean against it. Even Ella was having trouble with the wind side on at one stage and finished up walking at a 45degree angle.

Just before the end of Lyndon Rd I completed 1000km since the start in Christchurch.

Fiona and I had expected it to take her an hour to drive the long way round so she took her time, having a nap before starting (we did have a 5:15 alarm), did some shoppping and had a drink in Springfield, and took 1 wrong turn. As a result she was a little late getting to Lake Coleridge and I was 2km past the end of Lyndon Rd (which had an open sign at that end) when she arrived.

That was the end of the gravel and bitumen for the next 16km. There are no posts along this road marking off the kilometres. I use those to measure how quickly I am walking - 10min a km great, 11min a km is the target, 12mina km OK. Slower than that is kick in the pants time. Looking at my times today I was doing about 12.5minute km all day which is way too slow. Ella walked with me again for a while after I stopped for lunch (30 minutes late because I was too slow).

Zigzag Rd which is 5km of gravel running down into the Rakaia Gorge had also been freshly graded so my sore feet got another pounding. I put Arnica cream on my feet before walking along Zigzag Rd. I don't think it made any difference but it did no harm.

Fiona provided an escort across the 2 bridges on the Rakaia Gorge. The first bridge is one way and a woman in an open topped BMW was very nice about giving way to a man and his dog. From there it was only 5km to the finish but that included a 2km very steepe climb out of the Rakaia Gorge. I had been talking about doing some extra kilometres but was really going off the idea. I then checked the start time for the walk into Geraldine. It is 8am so I can start at 7:15 and give myself a time buffer.

We are staying tonight in an A-frame on a farm at Mt Somers. The owners, John & Ruth are members of the Anglican Church in Methven. Ruth is not well but we are doing our own cooking and using sleeping bags so there will be no sheets to be washed. The dogs are once again sleeping in the van.