Day 6. Greenstone-Mavora Walkway
54km, only 2km longer than expected today, and a little over 10 hours.
Mals thoughts for the day.
Woke up before the alarm yet again feeling very under cooked on the sleep front. The bod was a little stiff and sore but I was still looking forward to the day. How could you not when it was a cloudless morning and the day was to start with a boat trip across Lake Wakatipu to the start of the Greenstone track.
We had a smaller group today, just the 5 boys, and they were all raring to go! The run up the Greenstone was great but then the track got rough and tough as we climbed up over the saddle into the Mavora valley. It didn’t look like anyone had been over the track for some time as it was pretty overgrown. Once we got out of the bush it was hard going. The track kept changing underfoot with ups and downs and lots of little creeks to cross so it was tough to get a rhythm going.
With about 15km to go Jayson sprained an ankle but luckily we had the Doc (Andrew McLeod) on board with us again today so he strapped it up and administered pain killers and Jayson was up and running again. I offered Jays my own advice – a teaspoon of concrete (to harden up) but I was glad the Doc had something a little more scientific to offer!
We hit the lake with 10km to go and could see our final destination but again we were out in the open and it was a long haul down the lake edge. I thought we would go back into the trees to get some relief from the sun but the track kept going back down to the lake and at times it got really soft under foot.
Today was harder than I’d expected, only 2 km longer than I had thought and we came in closer to my estimated time than we had all week but we still kept the support crew waiting for half an hour. The team had made us a “last hill” sign with about 500m to go so we could regroup and do our hair in preparation for the run in. We could hear the cow bell through the trees as we neared the end and there was a big team to welcome us home. What a stunning spot to finish another long hot day at work!
Thanks to Alan, Andrew and Jeff for carrying my pack at times today and to Jayson, who ran yesterday and will be lining up with me again tomorrow for Kepler along with about 28 others!
Also I want to give Alan a special mention – today he ran 4 hours longer than he ever has before – what a great effort!
We got in just after 5 so after a soak in the lake we jumped in the wagons and headed to Te Anau to meet up with the big team for tomorrow and attend the race briefing. I had a chance to talk to the competitors at the briefing to drum up more support for the cause and to point them to the 7 in 7 table where we had enough bananas to feed an army, along with some of Sal’s home cooking available for a small donation.
Once we got to our motel Casey broke out the massage table, yet again, and after a great rub down and a dose of fish and chips and left over lasagne for dinner I’m off to bed.
Thanks again for all your support out there. The messages and donations just keep rolling in.
Cheers
Mal
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