Day 42 Arrowtown to Frankton

Walked by Rapid and limped by Mike 24.7km Walked by Ella 12.2km 36747steps including afternoon messing around.

Today I crashed. I was supposed to walk to Gibbston but at 1:30pm I gave up. I was tired and with a new blister that was still growing and really painful. I just didn't have the mental strength to continue ignoring the pain.

The weather was really good. By late morning I was down to just a merino shirt (and the hi viz jacket). But I was slow. In order to get to Queenstown on time I skipped 3km from Coronet Peak Rd to Arthurs Point - where the hotel was but is no more. I will walk that tomorrow.

Jessica and Marie for the Queenstown Cancer Society office took turns walking with me the last few km while the other sorted out vehicle issues - parking their own car and helping Ted find parking. The ODT were waiting to interview, I think for their Queenstown paper, when I arrived at the branch. Kate was supposed to walk with me but we managed to miss each other.

After a fairly lengthy cup of tea and a few photos I set out for Frankton accompanied by Kate. My groan and that fairly short but steep climb up Stanley St was an indication of my mental state. Kate, Spring and Kayne Toad walked with me for nearly 2km. At about 3km from Queenstown I decided the current dressing wasn't working and without a change I couldn't continue. I had left the dressing kit at Jessica's place - a big mistake. I rang Ngaire and asked her to buy some more stuff and give them to Ted. As there is no parking along Frankton Rd Ted had parked up a side street. Ngaire missed him but gave me the dressings. Shortly after that the footpath on Frankton Rd stops and you have to use the walkway for a few hundred metres. While I was out of site Ted drove past. When he was sure he must have missed me he went down to the walkway at Frankton. Meanwhile Jessica arrived with some new silver dressings she suggested tried. While Jessica and I were talking Ted was talking to a woman who had been behind me but had continued along the walkway and got to Frankton before me. Convinced I was ahead of him Ted cam back up to Frankton Rd and I saw him turn away from me towards the roundabout. Fortunately he stopped after the roundabout and walked back and found me.

Ted then changed my dressing but the new dressings hurt even without me walking. At that point I gave up on walking any further today. I had a cup of tea with Ngaire & Ted at their motel, took the dogs to the lake and then had an afternoon nap.

Tonight Nicky and Roger came to dinner at Jessica's place. Roger is an amazing go getter. As well as establishing a Weka breading programme he has set up a blue pearl business http://www.bluepearls.com/

I will need to juggle the schedule for the next 10 days while I make up the distance not walked today. Branch visits will continue at the planned times but it will involve a bit of driving backwards and forwards. I will start Thursday's walk from Frankton. I will walk as far as I can then drive to the edge of Cromwell to get to the branch at the planned time, then drive back and walk some more. Thursday is only planned as 36km so if all ges well I may be able to make up 7 or 8 km of the 18 I didn't ddo today from Frankton to Gibbston.