Day 55 - Mt Lee's Reserve - Palmerston North

It was another 30+km of road walking to Palmerston North I was happy that I had the sun to keep me company. I packed up camp and started making ground.

I wish I had something exciting to go off for today's walk, but I'll be honest, today was hard because it was 9 hours of road. When I don't want to think about the road I think about my sore muscles, and when I don't want to think about my sore muscles, well, I'm always thinking about my sore muscles.

It was only 11km to Fielding from Mt Lee's and by 11am I was in New Zealand's most beautiful town. It really was beautiful. The best part of my day was seeing how alive that town was. Before long I was out the other side of it and on my way to Palmy. It was a long stretch, but on the way I did make good friends with a horse. A very photogenic horse.

I made it to palmy by around 4 pm, and feeling exhausted. As I pulled into town I had one car drive by honking his horn and cheering me on. This certainly lifted a smile out of me. I continued forward to a backpackers called pepper tree. I came in exhausted, but with a smile on my face and was quite surprised when the owners treated me poorly. After being invited inside the owner tried to make me pay extra for not taking off my boots. Before long I was in the comfort of a bed with vibrating legs. 3 days and 100km later and I have made it to Palmerston North.

I had 1 bunk mate and his name was Alex. He was from France, and he decided he wanted to ride his bike from Wellington to Taupo over the next few days. It was nice to meet someone who was on a similar adventure to my own. Like myself, Alex was carrying all his food. This meant neither of us were eating particularly well. So after becoming quick friends, Alex and I decided to head down to the nearest countdown to pick up some streaks and noodles. We made an incredibly delicious meal together.

The forecast for tomorrow was rain. I managed to only have 1 rain day over the past two weeks so I can't say that I was surprised. Either way I will be pushing forward. I'm only half way to my next rest day.