These days were spent in Tehachapi, resting, recovering, and resupplying. We visited Walmart, spent an awful lot on food, and tried to get everything done in a day.

We start at Walmart, it’s the first time I’ve been here so I don’t exactly know what to expect. Inside, it’s like The Warehouse and Pak N Save combined. The first thing I see is USA themed hats and memorabilia, I think they’re gearing up for 4th of July. Next in store is clothing, followed by a full grocery store. We beeline straight to the grocery store and start filling trolleys. I find some NZ wine from Marlborough; Oyster Bay and Matua Sauvignon Blanc. A good reminder of home and the Matua goes straight into my trolley to share with the others.

Tehachapi is not an easy place to get around on foot, and we had to organize a ride to the post office. I picked up a new pair of shoes I’d ordered online a few days ago, the ones I’d started in have crushed out and aren’t supporting my feet anymore.

After buying food, picking up boxes and re-sending stuff from the post office, the day is almost over. There’s still a lot of organizing to be done to fit everything into our packs, but we also need to get some dinner before it’s too late, so the organizing will have to wait.

We make our way to the Chinese buffet, when we get there we know straight away why everyone on trail has been talking about the place. There are so many dishes on offer, a lot of which I haven’t seen before. Things like mango chicken, orange chicken, peanut sauce to put on top of skewers. I fill a plate with as much protein as I can, and about 5 different chicken dishes.

On the second day we have a bit more time to rest and organize our packs. Just like yesterday, time flys, but I manage to get a pizza and beer for lunch, and a couple of hours in the pool in the afternoon.

For dinner, we all visit a Thai restaurant which also has great comments from other hikers. The food is excellent and nobody walks out hungry. We head back to the hotel for our last night in town and make our final plans to get back on trail.