Day 56 Waihola to South Dunedin

Walked today by Mike & Rapid 43.8km Walked by Ella 15.3km. The pedomrter says 16000 steps which is definitely wrong.

While I packed and had breakfast Paul made some yummy corned beef sandwiches. A bit late leaving for the Raemon's place to pick up Ngaire & Ted but fortunately they were well organised. Sally after getting home late last night made some brownie - so a double yummy day.

The down side was that the Hickey children had not had a good night so I was short on sleep. Also my left heel was hurting really badly. I discussed "borrowing" some of Ngaire's codeine at the first break. As it turned out the heel settled down after half an hour although I needed paracetamol as well as ibuprofen today.

In spite of the forecast there was a little rain today. By late morning the rain had cleared and it was warm but got cold again after 4pm.

For only the second time this trip I cam across an inconsiderate truck driver. As I moved on to the Tairei River bridge with Ted as escort a TNL truck came around the corner. Instead of slowing down he gave a very long blast on the horn and charged past on the wrong side of the road.

The morning walk went well. I reached Mosgiel on time but as usual was slow up the main street as I worked all the pedestrians, a cafe, and a used clothing store for donations.

Rapid started out in a pair of Fiona's boots but quickly lost one. He did the rest of the morning in one of Fiona's and one of Marion's. The afternoon was on footpaths (I thought) so he went barefoot.

There was an ODT reporter waiting at Mosgiel so the Grip Tex boots went onto the front feet just for a photo.

Helen at Mosgiel branch was really welcoming and we spent far to long chatting. However she organised a trip on Tairei Gorge Railway for me for Thursday with a discount.

I was more than half an hour late when I left Mosgiel. I knew I wouldn't be able to keep up the morning pace. I arranged with Ngaire and Ted for them to meet me at Green Island and then to drive to Caversham and continue walking. With that I got to South Dunedin National Bank about on time. I also made a visit to ANZ across the road and encouraged staff from both branches to walk some or all of the way to the Octagon with me. I will be interested to see how many takers there are tomorrow.

It was then back to Green Island and just after 5pm I started the walk to Caversham which took roughly 1 hour. Dave cook went past while I was walking through Green Island and stopped for a chat.

Anne had a lovely meal of roast chicken and veges prepared not long after we arrived. With a beer, a cup of tea, a shower and the daily foot dressing routine it was suddenly 10pm and no blog.

Milestone for the day is having less than 400km left to walk.

I forgot to mention the Hickey's pet lamb yesterday. The Hickey's have a swing seat on the deck and Noisy, the lamb, has learned to swing himself in it.