26th December 2016, Te Araroa 86 Days
Good food and a shower
Red hut 1928km to Saint Arnaud 1945km
Crazy time to get up and start walking at 4;40 this morning, what was I thinking? I had no light as the lamp I did has i sent it back to Christchurch as it didn’t really work properly and went through the batteries very fast, I suspect that the light would turn itself on while in my back during the day with the on button being so exposed. Hindsight, I should have just taken out the batteries each day.
I booked into Alpine Lodge backpackers and had the biggest feed of Breakfast for a long time which cost me 21 dollars, five dollars more than I expected as the lady said i had toast and that wasn’t included in the deal. It was only 9 in the morning and I had the rest of the day to myself as Tony, Brenda, Mikayla and Jomara were due to arrive with my resupply box tomorrow and then Tony and myself start the next part of the trail from Saint Arnaud to Boyle Village which will take about a good week.
It was great relaxing, my washing all done and a hot shower that was on a timer of 5 minutes. With nothing to do until I meet Ken and the Canada couple for dinner tonight I just did stretchers read a book and made sure my clothes were drying before it started raining again.
Come five o’clock I meet the others at the bar for a meal, great little bar and probable the only one in town. I received a message from Eunhwa and i went into another room so i could talk with her over the phone. She had some really bad news, yesterday she went to the doctors for a checkup and after some time with monitors attached, the doctor could not find any heart beat which essentially means that the baby had died. It was a shock for me, I had got used to the idea of being a dad and for Eunhwa it was a very stressful moment and I wish I would have been there to help her through it. But at the moment, I’m just to far away and it would take a couple of day to get to south Korea, thank goodness she has four sisters to support her.