Failing at escaping the rain

So we woke up this morning to the biggest of downpours. Unfortunately we had planned to head even higher up the coast to visit the Oparara Arches but the weather was predicted the same as Westport; terriontal rain all day with no sign of it easing. We came to the conclusion that this will just have to be added to the list of things to do in summer and instead we headed inland towards Nelson. On the way the weather seemed to ease and we had brief moments of seeing the sun. The drive was very long but we eventually entered Nelson Lakes national park which has two major lakes. We visited Lake Rotoroa first and as we arrived the rain caught up with us and it chucked it down. We sat in the back of the van having tea from our flask to warm us up. Once it had cleared up a bit we ventured out to the jetty and had a look around at the scenery. The clouds were obscuring most of the view which was a shame but it was still nice to have a walk around and look at the fish in the lake. For some reason Nick's walking boots were wet inside today so we decided against doing the set walks here because they all were on muddy tracks and it would have ruined his other shoes. We didn't mind though because soon enough the rain was coming down once more. We headed back on the road and drove what felt like forever to the next lake called Lake Rotoiti. This lake also had a jetty and we were lucky enough to see an eel swimming around the end of it. We wondered if people feed it because it did look as if it was waiting for something. It's a bit of a backpacking tradition to jump off this jetty into the lake to get a good photo so it could be that he was hoping to get a nibble on one of our toes! Not surprisingly we were not fancying a dip in the lake today seeing as it's been pretty cold and wet already. Instead we explored the area and watched the ducks go about their lives. The cloud seemed to be shifting so we stuck around and we are glad we did because within half an hour or so we could actually see the mountains in the distance much more clearly. You can see the difference between the first two photos. We did drive up to what was marked on the map as a lookout point. The track was very narrow, windy and steep but we managed to get up there, luckily passing only two cars at quite conviennient wider spots. We parked up behind a car we'd seen at the jetty and all four passengers who were outside turned around and gave us the strangest of stares making us feel quite weirded out. We couldn't find the lookout and with people acting strange nearby we decided to turn around and head back down and on our way towards Nelson. We spent the night in Richmond which is just below Nelson at a paid campsite. It was rather compact and strange to see caravans and campers that have taken up permanent spots on the site. Some even had gardens and ornaments outside and you do wonder how much they pay to occupy a site all year round. Seeing as my last shower was a freezing cold one in the campervan (Nick used all the hot water) having a nice hot shower here was amazing. We also made full use of the kitchen and spread out making pizzas in the mini ovens. It did result in a small miniature, teeny tiny fire but we won't go into that!Read more