Day 89 - an actual rest day

St Arnaud.

After a very relaxing lie in this morning, we set off to explore St Arnaud. We had no real jobs to do here save getting a couple of bits from the shop. We’d sent a bounce box here which we were very grateful we had done - not having to do a food resupply was a huge weight off our backs.

The village itself was teeny, aside from the hotel and the shop come garage come cafe across the road there wasn’t much else to actually explore. We wandered down to the DOC centre and chatted to them about the Nelson Lakes section and the upcoming weather. The forecast was particularly bad for the next couple of days which was giving us pause about walking or not.

I’d wanted to come to St Arnoud ever since I was at uni and had backpacked around New Zealand - everyone I met had a jumping photo on the most beautiful jetty at Lake Rotoiti and I never got the chance to visit and get my own, until now!

We booked the hotel hot tub in the afternoon to soak away the last of the Richmond aches and then ate pizza in the hotel restaurant before retiring to watch movies in bed. It was maybe the first rest day of the whole trail that actually felt like a rest day. Wonderful.