Day 40 Lindis Valley to Wanaka

Walked by Mike and Rapid 42.3km 60262 steps. Walked by Ella 10.7km

There was a very light frost in Wanaka but at Lindis Valley this was quite a hard frost. We were a little late leaving and I was 15 minutes late starting walking.

I was worried about the dogs getting gravel bruising from the gravel roads in Lindis Valley so I put the grip tex shoes on all 4 paws of both dogs. Ella had never worn shoes before and did the funny high stepping walk. As it tirned out I need probably not have worried about the early bit as the road was smooth with no gravel at all. Ella walked until the first break. By then she was fairly comfortable with the shoes but was still walking with her rear legs splayed wider than usual. After about 4km she had started to bite at the front shoes so I took them off and let her walk in rear shoes only.

Fiona stayed with me until after the first break which was taken after only 7.3km. She left at 8:50 to go into Wanaka where she was meeting Kate and Ngaire and Ted before catching her bus. I put on a bit of a spurt after Fiona left and made it through to the Luggate-Tarras Rd before her bus went through so she could wave goodbye. I had a second break on reaching the Luggate-Tarras Rd. I was only 25 minutes behind schedule then. Fiona's bus came through when I was about 2.5km along that road.

The chip seal on the roads around Wanaka is done with fairly large chips that seem to have lots of pointy bits. I was glad Rapid was wearing 4 shoes as I'm sure the chip seal would have been really tough on his feet.

Ngaire and Ted joined me at about 24km. They immediately turned around and went up to a place just before Kane Rd, which is the road that runs from Hawea Flat to Luggate. Kane Rd is State Highway 8A for about 700m including the Clutha River bridge. The third break was taken there. Ngaire and Ted had no food with them so I suggested they go to Puzzling World, have something to eat and have a look around. I asked them to take a bucket with them I walked about another kilometre along the lake shore towards Scot's family bach this afternoon as Ted was dropping off Ngaire and the shopping. Turned out to be a good thing as I got another donation.

After dinner we went to the pub to take up a collection. The Englnad supporters in the pub were very generous but the French supporters were mean. I hope Canada win.