Day 29 Bealey Spur to Lake Lyndon

Walked today by me & Rapid 47.3km by Ella 15km 64003 steps

Food for today's and tomorrow's walks was donated by the Wobbly Kea at Arthur's Pass - thanks very much.

Fiona and I were fairly well organised today and I was walking at 7:09am. I was able to ignore the blister on my left heel and completed 5km before 8am and 10.3km by 9am. This included some rather narrow stretches at Paddys Bend (I'm sure it should have an apostrophe but it doesn't on the map) and with both dogs. Ella ws in the mood to pull and I let here as I'm sure it boosted my speed a little. The first delay came when I felt a blister starting while crossing the Cass River. Unfortunately Fiona had recently gone past and I had another 3km to go before I got to her. The blister, on my big toe this time, was still fairly small so I'm hopeful it will heel up quickly. I had started out in a cold wind but by Lake Grasmere I had shed my parka. The rest of the day I alternated between sweating profusely when out of the wind and feeling comfortable when in it - except for the last half hour when I started getting cool again.

I but blister pads on my heels last night. They started stinging and throbbing in the wee hours so I took paracetemol to get back to sleep. The jury is still out on whether they are successful, but certainly the heal was no worse then yesterday in the morning and seemed improve in the afternoon.

The second break was taken at Lake Pearson. Again a cold wind so I didn't take the dogs down to the lake for a swim. Ella walked again after lunch as far as Flock Hill Lodge (who provided a free hot chocolate). She frequently was sitting outside the van keen to come when I stopped to give Rapid water but at the end of the day when I was going to walk her from Porter River to Lake Lyndon but when I called her she decided to stay in the van.

There is very little snow around Arthur's Pass so I was surprised to find snow in the south facing slopes and other places that get no sun from Flock Hill through to Lake Lyndon.

Once again I slowed down in the afternoon so that I was 55minutes late at Lake Lyndon. I had been trying to do it in no more than 30 minutes over time so we would be back in Arthur's Pass befrore the store closed. We have enough petrol for tomorrow so the main loss was not getting milk.

We were both fairly tired so after a quick dinner at the Wobbly Kea it was feed the dogs, shower and bed. I'm working using a small lamp while Fiona sleeps.