During the night it kept raining and temperatures continued to drop to about 12 C. Wind was going strong, I was well covered, but on some early stage it dropped water from the roof of my tent.
And I thought northface is a good brand. Do not buy the “vario 33” or probably the whole vario series.
After a while of dropping, I moved into the car. It needed some time of preparation, because I did not want to get my stuff to wet while moving. After I made it, I set up the shotgun seat for sleeping and had actually a pretty good night – less wind, less noise of the rain.
When I got up I was surprised about the time, already 9:45am. I got ready without washing in the lake, because the wind had changed and the water was full of drift wood.
After not even 3 minutes driving I already had to stop. A farmer freed a bridge from sand and rocks. When I passed just another 500m later, the road was completely flooded and I had to stop before the point where the river crossed it. It looked very much like the tare was cracked and partly washed away. So, I turned around to talk to the farmer guy but he was already gone. I tried to catch him, but came only a little further than the camping ground, because I did not want to cross the ford, which did not look too bad but I felt not wise to cross. I went to my new friend in the hut and told them about the road condition. After a tea, I said bye and tried my luck again. Arriving at the flooding zone there was a guy on the other side talking on the phone with the council.
We both agreed that the road was not too safe to pass, because it was also undermined and the tare was swimming. But after two guys came and said it wouldn’t be too bad and went through, I used their tracks.
Better safe than sorry 😉
Now I am at hwy 8 on the dam of lake Ruataniwha and have lunch. Everything is very grey around here with a visibility of 3km. What to do today? I probably go to lake tekapo and have a look around there hoping that I will have a better view tmr.
