Day 60 Waikouaiti to Waianakarua

A day that challenged my Maori pronunciation skills
Walked by Mike and Rapid 45.5km 60345 steps. Walked by Ella approx 19km.

Total distance walked 2039.4km Funds raised $18,619.58 plus what is in the bucket.

There was a severe weather warning for today. A period of very cold rain during the morning. It didn't happen or if it did it was before 5:45am. There were a few showers south of me between 7 and 8 am. I felt a few drops of rain but nothing came of it. By late morning it was partly cloudy - it was nice when the sun wasn't behind a cloud. There was a cold wind blowing from the southwest and you quickly got cold if the sun wasn't shining.

Todays highlights:
- The last major hill - Horse Range between Palmerston and Moeraki
- Walking 2000km
- Having less that 300km left to walk
- Getting off road again.

We were a little disorganised after last nights celebrations and were 15 minutes late starting walking. The good thing is I was able to make that up and I had completed 10km at 9am. Ella walked the first 6.4km Rapid was looking much happy than for a while after his 2 days off. He played a lot more today than he did on Wednesday.

The 2000km mark came up after 4.5km - between Waikouaiti and Palmerston. I was tempted to text Paul and Jude and tell them but thought I may not be popular at that early hour. Jude rand me and Paul texted from Taiwan so I was able to share the news with them.

There was very little traffic prior to Palmerston and most of it northbound so I was able to cross the 4 bridges before Palmerston without an escort. At Palmerston I found 2 good spots for collecting - McGregor's Bakery, where I also had a hot chocolate and the toilets which were fairly busy. As a result I had a fuller bucket but I was 15 minutes late leaving Palamerston.

From Palmerston I used Horse Range Rd which climbs over Horse Range (220m) and then descends Trotters Gorge before joining SH1 2.3km south of Moeraki turnoff. There was very little traffic on the road but at least one of the vehicles I am sure was subject to highjacking by GPS. Horse Range Rd is about 2km shorter than SH1 from Palmerston to Moeraki but the climb and tight corners make it far slower than the main road. A rental car with a foreign couple looking a little uncomfortable came along the road. I was a bit slow up the hill and hit the summit about half an hour behind schedule. I managed to lose some more time on the descent too which surprised me as I was about 45minutes late at Moeraki.

At Moeraki Ngaire and Ella joined me and we walked along the beach to Hampden. I took a photo of Ella and Rapid with one of the Moeraki Boulders. I then started to pose with them for a shot to be taken by Ngaire. Neither of us were watching the sea and I got caught by a wave. My right sock above the shoe was wet so I assumed that I had a wet foot. I rang Ted and asked him to get some dry socks from my suitcase and meet me at Hampden. I was surprised to discover the water had not got into my shoe and the sock and dressings were still dry.

Between Hampden and Waianakarua I was back on State Highway 1. Several people stopped and wanted to meet the dog that wears shoes. Today Rapid was wearing some of Fiona's soft boots. It was there second day. The road was fairly good with lots of grass verges. I took the shoes off along the beach. While the leather had worn through the fabric was still protecting his feet. They were thrown away at the end of today's walk.

Dinner tonight was at the Moeraki Tevern while Wales were beating Ireland. The Irish supporters weren't feeling so generous but there were enough Wales supporteres to make up for that.