Water Water Water

What a wild and woolly night that was!  I swear Franz Josef got as much rain in one night as Perth does all winter and the wind was almost rocking our cottage off its footings!  By morning, though, the wind had eased and the rain was lighter and by the time we got to Fox Glacier it was a light drizzle.  Stopped for a coffee/milkshake etc and then continued south.  Pretty much all the hills and mountains around us were swathed in cloud and even when we hit the coast at Knight's Point there was a sea mist and low cloud.  We got out of the car at the lookout in any case, primarily for some fresh air and to stretch our legs, as the chance of spotting one of the 800 NZ fur seals that hang out here in winter were slim.  Continued driving and noticed that occasional blue patches were appearing in the sky and by the time we got to Haast the sun was actually peeping through the clouds.  We had an early lunch at a cafe/pub at Haast plus a game of pool while we waited for our meals to cook.  I had a very yummy steak sandwich with a nice piece of juicy steak in it (as opposed to the horrible gristly and thin steaks you normally get) so a very pleasant lunch.

Back in the car and headed up the Haast Pass.  We had noticed all morning that the snow melt streams that had been barely running the last couple of days of driving were fairly churning with water today after that dump of rain and we fully appreciated how much rain had fallen as we passed numerous waterfalls running down the sides of the hills and mountains and Thunder Creek Falls and Fantail Falls were both worth stopping for as they were flowing nicely.

  Was reasonably easy driving today as the rain and warmer temperatures meant that we didn't have to worry so much about black ice on the roads.  We did, however, come across one car that had managed to bump into some rocks on the side of the road and dinged their car.  Another car had stopped and was diverting traffic around so we kept going but were just a little bit more careful after that.  As we got through the Pass and reached Lake Wanaka the skies were nearly blue with just a few wispy white clouds - the mountains must have trapped all the cloud and rain on the west coast and we had a very pleasant drive along the blue waters of Lake Wanaka and Lake Hawea into Wanaka.

 Stopped for an icecream and dropped into the Mt Aspiring Visitor Centre to check the status of the road across the Crown range to Queenstown.  I was concerned that as it goes right past the Cardrona skifields that we might need snow chains etc and wanted to know whether we should take the lower, but longer road.  The bloke said due to the rains the only real issue would be rockfalls so we decided to take the high road!

Well, nothing much to worry about.  There was only a bit of old snow on the edges of the road and even the Cardrona mountain looked like there wasn't that much snow on it.  Only a few little rock falls on the road also (and not as bad as we'd seen on previous days) so a very pleasant and scenic drive.  The only slightly hairy bit was after we'd stopped for a photo stop and noticed that the brakes on the car were smelling very hot.  We supposed that it was due to the Rav4 being pretty new and things still wearing in but it was a bit unsettling because we immediately started heading down the mountain range into Queenstown via 30 or so hairpin bends!  Made it to ground level safely though and made our way to our home for the next 4 nights - Waterfront Apartments - we have a top floor penthouse suite with gorgeous views overlooking Lake Wakitipu and the Remarkables beyond.  Although the cloud was closing in, we managed to get some photos of the view before the rain set it again.

After a little rest we walked up the road and into the village to look for dinner.  Well, now we know where all the people in New Zealand are!!  The roads were heaving with people and all the tourist sites like Ferburgers were bursting at the seams.  We decided fast food was the go tonight, so quick dinner at KFC and then home to our cosy unit.  As I am writing this we can hear air raid sirens (same as we heard at Kaikoura when the SES were calling in the volunteers) and now fire engines so something's going on outside.  Think we'll just stay here for now!