Leaving Southland on a wet day, well one could say how many dry days did we have in the six weeks we were there…mmmmm we did get a week of glorious weather in late October! It was one of the wettest spring’s I’ve ever experienced wet cold and windy! With rain pouring down we said goodbye to family here’s hoping some decent weather returns to the south!
Our first stop Lowburn, Lake Dunstan, sun shining for now! We spend 2 nights here, we start back into our fitness, as we have been pretty slack and not doing our usual walks or biking, we must be softies as the excuse weather too miserable! We enjoy an 8km walk and the day was warming up nicely, pick up a few supplies head back to Lowburn. I enjoy watching 2 Crested grebes ducking and diving for food, fascinating birds they are truly water fowl as they do not live on land at all, their nests are floating rafts.
We wake to a chilly Monday fresh snow on the Pisa Range head to Wanaka for a lunch date with Eilleen at Florence’s cafe on the Crn of Orchard Road and Cardrona Rd, what a delightful cafe, great food, good company just what we needed on a rather cool day.
We then continue towards a favorite spot West end of Lake Ruataniwha for the night, greeted with a rather cool breeze but the views are spectacular. In the evening Shane grabs his rifle and goes for a walk along the lake edge in search of rabbit or possum, his aim at a couple of rabbits are a bit futile and later his search for possums are the same, not one possum in his spot light, it’s obvious the area has been shot clean of possums as there are signs of boredom shooting in the form of bullet holes in every signpost in the area.
Tuesday the weather takes a turn for the worse, blowing a gale, rain encroaching over the alps, we make our way to Tekapo.. the wind has really picked up in ferocity a screaming Nor West, I can imagine the rain being dumped on the west coast! Shane does a grand job driving in these conditions wind buffeting us but having Jimmy in tow stabilizes us well. We make stay at NZMCA Park in Tekapo, with the wind still howling. Lakes Pukaki and Tekapo have waves whipping up quite impressive. Tekapo is inundated with tourists all trying to get that photo of the Church, the dog and the lupins! We pass them by enjoy a walk in the blustery conditions.
Wednesday dawns very cool, we breakfast and decide to head further east, the temperature now warming considerably, of course we stop for a Fairlie Bakery pie, scrumptious venison and cranberry for me and steak and cheese for Shane, absolutely packed with flavour meat and gravy… it’s a must stop! We head on out to Lake Opuha, another favourite spot to park up for the night. Oh the sun is shining and warm! We enjoy sitting out in the sun getting our vitamin D, something that has been lacking in the past couple of months! We then mountain bike round the shoreline of Lake Opuha to the dam, some good balancing required on the rutted track, lots of fun and return via a gravel road with a very long climb! The sky is darkening significantly to the south, we get back in time, thank goodness we miss the hailstorm that hit Timaru, rained briefly then returned to sunshine.
After much discussion on where to next we decide to spend a couple of days in the Peel forest area.