Just a quick catch up!

Hi all

I only have a few minutes but just to let you know where we are. We are in Wanaka now, we arrived last night and are enjoying a rest day, laundry, internet and shopping etc.

So when we left Dunedin we drove across to Te Anau, the gateway to Fjordland and went on a 2.5 day hike around the Kepler trail covering 60kms (40 miles) climbing upto heights of 1500m. It was a massive challenge and unfortunately my walking boots that have never caused me problems crippled my feet by rubbing and causing blisters, so much so that I had to walk the last 16kms in flimsy beach flip flops or sometimes barefoot through woodland and still climbing hills (not as steep though!) I was in SO much pain, it got to the point that it was like Aidan was taking his nana out for a walk-however older people still would have overtaken me! The good news is that now I have had 2 days off, my legs ache far less, i walk as I should and I know that even though it wasn't swimming it was great cross training as I was puffing like a steam train at times so my CV fitness has been whipped into shape but also mind over matter was very much put into practice. The pain I felt was immense but I made it to the end, swimming the Strait may need the same mental power but I now know I have it!

Anyway yesterday my legs had a rest as we kayaked through Doubtful Sound-beautiful, again I will provide more details later.

Now we are going to the cinema to escape the powerful sun and then having a 1 hour dip in the lake in prep for the 6 hour tomorrow. We have hired a Kayak from 7am-think of me starting my training swim at 6pm Wednesday eve if you are in the UK!

Anyway I'll be in touch soon. Thank you all for your supportive messages you have been sending, I really appreciate it.

Love Emily xxx