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What does one do when the dream of a lifetime is realised? What is beyond Reinga (the place of departing spirits)?
Questions, so long ignored and put on the back burner of my mind, now had to be faced. We walked, very slowly, back up the track to the car. I sat down and untied the Hoka laces for the last time. It seemed another lifetime when I had tied them at Bluff, but it was only a little over 37 days. With my Swiss Army knife, I cut the bandages off my feet. Two of my nails stayed attached to my toes and the other eight stayed with the bandages.
I sat for a long time, and looked at the feet and the soles of the shoes. All four were in tatters, but had done everything, and more, that had been asked of them. I would keep the shoes as a memorial of the greatest task I had ever set myself. I guessed I would keep the feet too. They would never be the same, and it was hard to imagine them being pain-free again. I stood and looked southwards and thought of AH Reed all those years ago, setting off from here and heading for Bluff with his little suitcase and dressed properly in hat and tie (and good boots). I wished my father could have been here to see this. We have no way of knowing how long we will have loved ones about, so we need to communicate more often with them about our feelings and dreams.
