Rain delay

February 2nd, 3rd, and 4th

Lake Hāwea

~1km away from km marker 2580

Distance: 0km

Elevation: n/a

Steps: n/a

Time: n/a

Turns out our plans for heading up to Lake Ohau were derailed by rain. Not that we're opposed to walking in the rain, but the terrain we're heading into is probably best not attempted in the heavy rains and high winds of Feb 2nd. Yesterday (Feb 3rd) was actually fine weather and we could have headed up but...

Today (Feb 4th) was quite heavy rain, and basically non-stop.

Again, not a problem, except for days 2 and 3 of our next section are either crossing rivers, or walking up streams. And everyone, from local trampers to the helpful staff at the Department of Conservation office, advised we give the rivers at least a day to settle down after rain before attempting that track. So we made the decision to stay at a holiday camp in Lake Hāwea (specifically, "The Camp") rather than heading up to the first hut.

This worked in our favour as we were able to hitch back to Wanaka and buy Vaughan a new rain coat (his old one was very much not waterproof any more). 

This worked against us as we are both very much just wanting to get back on the trail already!! Also, since it is now Friday night on a long weekend, we are having to put up with noisy holiday makers, in particular the doof doof kids.

So, reset your "4-8 days until you hear from us again" timers, and you'll hear from us again when we reach either Lake Ohau or Tekapo (depending on how quickly we're able to hire bicycles for that section of the track.)

Oh, and in case you thought we were just sitting around for three whole days doing basically nothing, may I present to you:

1) A completed 500-piece puzzle with 13 pieces missing from the box:

 

2) A completed 1000-piece puzzle with 10 pieces missing from the box:

3) Eliza finished knitting Vaughan's new hut socks:

So, not a wasted rain delay (and yes, photos 1 and 2 above are just as frustrating as you might expect)

Finally, you'll see in the summary up top that we've added a km marker. This was at the request of one of our readers (hi Bub!), and is counting down to 0 as we head toward Cape Reinga. So if you're following along on a marked map of the TA, this should give you a little more precision as to where we are, especially when we camp in some random place.