All aboard the Ark!

We awoke to heavy rain, even worse than the previous day. We got packed up and Andy went to drop a bottle off in recycling and found our two hitchers sitting in the kitchen trying to psyche themselves up to stand in the rain, so we offered them a lift all the way to Wanaka and they were somewhat chuffed. We all packed ourselves into the Subaru and headed off down the road/river and what a journey! Wipers often at double speed, little aqua plains and much concentration required, especially up Haast Pass with mental waterfalls at the side of the road, including a couple that meant we were getting rained on sideways too!

However, we passed round the side of the mountains, the rain stop, and miracle of miracles, the sun came out! In fact, it was a beautiful day. We unloaded our hitchers, then found our hostel and unloaded ourselves, and went for a walk around town. And what a fabulous place. Wanaka is as close to our perfect location as can be. A very nice lake, lots of mountains, ski areas nearby, and a really nice feel to the town. And we finally managed to go kayaking!! OK, so a paddle around a lake is not quite the same as the kayak along the Abel Tasman would have been, but it was still good.

The next day Andy had identified a track he could run along take him up hill and Chris headed off to walk up to a view point for the Rob Roy glacier (honest!). The car park for the walk to the glacier view point was a lot longer than Chris had anticipated, and most of it (40k or so) was on stoney track, and had to go through quite a few fords. However, it was VERY worth it. The walk itself was lovely and the views of the glacier, on such a lovely sunny day, were quite superb. And right at the beginning of the walk, Chris spots a familiar looking couple off in the distance. Not too long later, she catches up with, yes, the two Israelis! They were going at a more sedate pace, so she carried on past. After reaching the view point, on the way back down, she also passed a group of French guys - with quite a lot of double takes going on from both sides, she is fairly sure they were the same group who were in the hostel we stayed in in Motueka. Quite bizarre.

Andy, on the other hand, wasn't having such a successful day. He'd worked out a route along a lakeside track that he could cut off to a route up Mount Roy which would qualify for a Munro back home. Trouble being he missed the turnoff and after several miles along the undulating track got to the end, turned back and ran along the road to make sure he found the Mount Roy track. Finally getting to the bottom of it (11 miles in to the run rather than the intended 5) he only managed about two thirds of the climb which equated to two miles of continuous hard ascent before deciding he was a) running out of water and b) knackered. He descended a little quicker and returned along the lakeside route, happily coming across an ice cream van at the end of the track to supply a very welcome cone, complete with flake! 20 miles, some _very_ slow and not what he had in mind but hey, the views were, as always, great and it kept him out of the pub :o) (briefly - Ed)