Distance today = 58.27 km; Total distance = 1283.66 km; Location = Rewa –  39 59.177′ S, 175 38.017′ E; Start time = 0812, Finish time = 1638

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/144434379

I started the day by running into the Palmerston North town centre to see Carmel at the dentist surgery. She had broken off a piece of tooth – such are the hazards of chewing on muesli bars. It’s all fixed now and the support crew are firing on all cylinders.

From there I headed north, through the amusingly named village of Bunnythorpe, and on to Feilding (correct spelling) – a great little town.

The afternoon then consisted of climbing through some beautiful countryside in very hot conditions – maybe not extreme in terms of an Australian summer, but hot enough to make things quite difficult for an uphill 58 km run.

However, I was rewarded with a spectacular view from the high point of the day (425 m), where I could see the snow-capped volcano, Mt Ruapehu, at 2797 metres high. I hope to have a video of this uploaded later.

I then had to descend 300 metres down a steep pass to my end point of the day at the village of Rewa. My Garmin Forerunner 610 GPS ran out of batteries shortly before I finished, and I had to change to my spare Garmin Edge 705 for the last 1.45 km. I will upload this when I have wireless internet which doesn’t require a USB plug-in. My Notebook only has two USB ports – one is used for the wireless mouse, and the 705 has to be plugged into the other for downloading, meaning I don’t have a port for the internet plug-in. It’s complicated, I know. Anyhow, the correct distance for the day is 58.27 km, not the 56.82 km shown on Garmin Connect. Unfortunately, I will have to go to the second Garmin device every day that I’m out on the road for more than eight hours.

One bizarre moment of the day occurred when I passed a shearing shed where there was rap music blaring from inside. I guess it’s a sign of the times. What would the shearers of days-gone-by think?