Day 55. Palmerston North zero day.

Today 0 km.

I had a good sleep in then had breakfast in bed and read for a while.  At 1130 I headed out with the first priority being my resupply parcel from the Post Office.  I then headed to Bivouac to pick up my walking pole section to replace the one that I bent. I sent an email to the shop before the river trip and when I got to Wanganui they emailed me to let me know it had arrived.  I also swapped my Icebreaker socks for free again thanks to the lifetime warranty.  The staff were really friendly and interested in the trail.  The manager took photos of my Solomon Shoes to show the manufacturer where they were consistently blowing out for every TA tramper who has them.  I was not impressed with the durability of these shoes.  Day 3 the inner soles became unwearable and the mesh started ripping at 300 km with open holes in them by 500 km.

Unfortunately Bivouac didn't have anything else I liked so I went to several shops to try trail runners but they either didn't fit or were too flimsy.  I took a break for lunch and saw Romain (from river trip) with another TA hiker I hadn't met before called Jack. Then Joey and Julien turned up so we did a catchup. The guys had hired a car in Wanganui,  driven up to Tongariro and done the crossing in good weather,  driven back to Wanganui and then walked the trail to Bulls. From there the 3 hitched to Palmerston North to get essential things done while Geoff walked the rest of the way.

After lunch I went back to my shoe quest without luck so I decided to go back to Bivouac and get the Inov8 shoes I started with. I figure there is not as much road walking now so I should be good in them again.

I then hung out in a cafe filling up with smoothie and coffee before heading back to the Backpacker, stopping at Subway for a sandwich for diner.  I struggled with the Internet so gave up updating my blog and just relaxed.  Fabian turned up so we caught up with what we had been up to. I then read,  packed up and went to sleep.

Night 54, 55