Trip disrupted by weather

I have spent many hours planning and organizing this trip. Once I started booking accommodation in the more popular places where it is harder to find at this time of year like Nelson and Queenstown, I pretty much had to work out where we would stop in between and how long we wanted to stay in each location. Once I started, I just keep planning and so in the end I pre booked the whole trip. Also I needed something to do while off work with my broken arm.
Today's plan was to start in Greymouth, see Shantytown, so the kids could pan for gold and wander down the west coast and end up in Fox glacier for the night, ready for a walk on the glacier first thing tomorrow morning.
But we woke to 40-50 km/hr winds and torrential rain. An outdoor activity like Shantytown didn't sound like fun. Instead we headed south to Hokitika. We stopped and did one of the local activities (which the kids may blog), and had lunch at a cafe. While there, the water on the footpath outside the cafe got to a foot deep and then slowly receded.


We then wandered through a couple of craft shops and overheard a conversation about road closures. The 6 - our route south to Fox glacier - and the 73 (Arthur's Pass) were both closed. The 6 being down for perhaps a number of days due to a washed out bridge. The 73 closed for flooding, perhaps open tomorrow.
So we had a quick change of plan .....
We headed back the way we had come this morning to Greymouth and took the Lewis pass to Christchurch. Four hours later....accommodation wasn't too hard to find, but with phone and Internet down in southland, we couldn't cancel our bookings for tonight or tomorrow. And tomorrow we have another long long drive to Queenstown to get back on schedule. Maybe just winging it for the accommodation on this trip would have been wise after all....
Cathy
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad