26 Jan. After 17 days of walking covering 349km of the trail, a few rest days are going to help put some energy back into my body. I am two days ahead of the planned schedule by foregoing a rest day in St Arnaud and putting in some long days to complete the Nelson Lakes section before the forecast rain.
Mary’s friend picked us as planned and they kindly dropped me off at Vibrant Living Retreat (https://www.vibrantliving.co.nz/). My sister Ros and I had stayed there last October and I had the idea then it would make a great break in my walk. Mary Jo and Steve are great hosts and after coffee and breakfast I had a massage with Chara who eased all my muscles, especially around the shoulders.
I checked my body weight, which was down 4kg to 66kg. Fortunately with rest days I am going to have time to put some of that back on.
With laundry done and boots cleaned, I walked into town and met Stefan and Oceane for a beer and a late lunch. Stefan is staying in a motel, so used his room as a base for checking out town and seeing what food options the Four Square supermarket had for the next section.
We had a table of walkers for a pub dinner: Holger, Pete, Oceane and Stefan and that finished off a day of eating.
The Interconnected View 