Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Made It !


Tuesday, 29th January 2013  32.5 kms  6 hrs

My last TA day started with a walk along the Estuary Walkway from Invercargill, taking me away from the town and onto SH1 - the Bluff Highway.

Then it was a 20 km road walk along the busy road - many vehicles in both directions, including a lot of trucks heading to the port of Bluff.

A warm, balmy day with not much wind, which is a lot better than the pouring rain or blasting southerlies that other TA walkers have had at this point.

And so I reached the outskirts of Bluff , and left the road for the Foveaux walkway which travels around the south side of  Bluff Hill - first through grassy paddocks, then scrub, then larger bush for the last part - a superb way to end the trail, matching the start of the trail at Cape Reinga.

The path goes ever on (picture), but ... no, there is only 3 kms left.

My wonderful wife and support crew, Hazel joined me for the last km, and then there were the obligatory photos by the end of the road, and end of Te Araroa, signpost.

What an incredible journey I have had over the last 4 summers  .. and now it is all done - a great feeling of relief that my aggressive schedule for this summer actually worked - 22 days' walking from the Rangitata River to Bluff

2 comments:

  1. What a really great achievement Tony, congratulations! What next? Jo and Mark

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  2. Hi Tony, stumbled across your blog in the last couple of days and read it through. What a great achievement in walking this over a period of time, great committment. Well done on what seems like a great adventure.

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