I doesn’t rain in southern New Zealand …

by Cyril · 2015-10-17

… man – it pours.

It started in the night but it did not stop in the morning either. It was pouring water out of those clouds.
Good thing that we where supposed to drive on anyway.

Todays morning stop was supposed to be Lake Matheson. A nice clear lake where the biggest mountain of New Zealand (Mt. Cook) can be seen in a nice mirror image.
Not today though. The Rain was so strong that Lisa (still our driver) decided that she would not even risk sending the more enterprising ones of us out for a walk.
Not so much to keep us dry but because she was afraid that the roads would get even more flodded and the bus would not make it back to the highway.

So we turned around and had an unplanned lunch stop in the little village of Fox which mirrors Franz-Josef that we had just left.

As the drive went on there where a lot of waterfalls to be seen. Some of them not visible under normal conditions and therefore new to Lisa as well. I did not think about getting my camera out unfortunately so these waterfalls will have to remain a mystery.

As we went up into the mountains the weather got better and once we passed the Gates of Haast (a very steep pass through the southern alps) there was sunshine all the way to our destination: Wanaka.

The way went past lovely lakes in deepest blue. But mostly without a place to stop for a photo.