A much needed rest day, and rest I did. Apart from going for a walk into town to run some errands and pick up my bike for tomorrow. I had a bit of a sleep in, cooked breakfast, called home for a catch up with the family, ate lots of good and bad food, had a few beers and basically blobbed out.

The owner of the sleeping pad I found a few days ago contacted me after I posted a photo of it on the TA Facebook page. He was heading northbound and it came off his pack when it got caught on a thorny bush and didn’t even realise. I actually stopped to talk to him when I was walking down from Stag Saddle the other day so recognised his voice when he called me. I have couriered it up to Arthur’s Pass where he is heading and he will just have a few uncomfortable sleeps before then.

At 9.55pm last night we stood outside on the deck and watched Elon Musk’s satellites fly over. There were 60 of them in a row.