The Humes are on holiday so NZ South Island is suffering an exceptional weather event. The only mitigating factor is that we weren't scheduled to be cycling today. It will be a short report today as there are only so many ways you can describe torrential rain and gale force winds!! We were travelling from Westport to Arthur's Pass, which promised to be a scenic drive, coast then mountains, with various places of interest to visit en route. We got out to walk the Truman track and had just got to the headland when the torrential rain started (see picture). We couldn't even get out of the car at the Pancake rocks, but luckily we had visited on our last trip. We were so wet getting back from the Truman track that we struggled to keep the car demisted for the rest of the journey - the rain was truly apocryphal and apparently by 6.00pm (it started at 11.00am) there had been 4 inches and it has been torrential since then with the forecast for it to continue until sometime tomorrow. They are also talking about 100mph winds during tomorrow's rush hour in Wellington. Naturally the East Coast of South Island appears to be warm and dry.
We drove up from the coast to Arthur's Pass crossing swollen rivers and passing what we though we're lakes until we noticed the top of fence posts and telegraph poles popping out of the floods. We are now sitting in our motel (cabin) in Arthur's Pass watching the rain (see picture of view from window). We have been out for a walk and got comprehensively soaked, again see picture of me outside the Wobbly Kea, trying to see where we can go walking tomorrow. We have been warned off Avalanche Peak, which was where we hoped to go - snow is expected down to 1200m and we really aren't prepared for that. Don't miss yesterday's post which should appear below this one. Apologies for paucity of photos. Wifi not working so don't know when this will appear......m
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