23 Aug 2008

Day Six - Tirau to Tokoroa

Today was the first morning I started to really feel my legs!! But after a brisk warm up and a chat with my physio I was all warmed up and on my way again. The new 10am start is proving to be a stayer….as we set off through the beautiful little town of Tirau.

Mark Burton (the Labour MP for Waikato) joined me again this morning, along with Jackie Maitland from Shell and Terry Hodder from ONTRACK. The crew kept the pace the entire way from Tirau to Putaruru, however when the weather turned and the heavy rain kicked it, we lost the pack and Mel and I were on our own.

The showers didn’t last too long luckily so we were able to peel off the wet weather gear and keep up the pace. A few of our crew came out for a walk today with David, Sophie and Patrick all putting in some time. I was interested to see how they would fair as several of them were in the Tokoroa RSA for a little longer than the rest of us last night…..however to their credit they didn’t show it at all today!

After a 32km stroll we arrived at Shell Tokoroa and were welcomed by a few locals. The question of the day was asked to one of my support crew when he held out a donation bucket, “why do we need to give money to Chris Cairns bro…is he broke?”. We then briskly headed back to the hotel to relax before dinner at the Cosmopolitan Club in Tokoroa. A big thank you to Andrew Coulsby and his staff at the Lakeview restaurant, who invited us in and put on a delicious roast and apple crumble pudding for our crew. We have been overwhelmed by the support each of the communities we have visited have extended, it really is greatly appreciated!

CC

 

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