My walking partner was not quite so raring to go as was suffering from a sore ankle but she had strapped it up and joined me at the start. The words of encouragement on the second day were from Porirua’s mayor and we were soon on our way.
The weather wasn’t as good on day two as it was pretty blustery and grey clouds threatened rain. On day one I had been quite surprised at how quickly the group – some 130 people – had spread out, the group seemed to stay together longer on day two and there was soon a long snake of people walking through Plimmerton and up the hill towards Pukerua Bay.
We accidently took a wrong turn in Pukerua Bay due to the lack of a marshal or signs indicating where we needed to turn (the Lions soon rectified this) so we ending up walking a little longer than we needed to. I had been hoping for clear skies for day two as I love this part of my train journey into work and wanted to take lots of pictures. The picture below as we were walking alongside the state highway between Pukerua Bay and Paekakariki shows that the weather wasn’t playing ball and I don’t think I took my jacket off for the whole of the walk.
We had the option of walking along the beach once we reached Paekakariki surf club or taking the coastal track through Queen Elizabeth II Park, we did a mixture of both – the beach route felt quicker and easier but it was very windy so we were getting sand blasted. For me the hardest part of the walk was turning onto Rosetta Road at Raumati South and feeling so close but knowing we still had a couple of kms to go and at this point the feet were really hurting.
We reached Marine Gardens in Raumati Beach around 1.30pm feeling very proud that we had finished. I hope I never have to do that walk in a real emergency as I know it would feel very different – I probably wouldn’t have spare socks and a ready supply of bananas to keep me going for a start! Doing the walk was a great experience and if push came to shove I now know I can walk it (albeit with a hot meal, bath and comfy bed halfway through).
I hope the event has raised awareness and given people some food for thought when it comes to preparing for an emergency.
If you missed day 1 of Zoe's adventure, click here
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