Lake Rotoiti
16 de noviembre de 2021, Nueva Zelanda ⋅ 🌧 8 °C
I forgot to tell you about the satellite train! As luck would have it, we just happened to be heading from Joanne and Simon’s house back to our motorhome at a little before 10pm on Sunday night, when we looked up into the clear night sky and saw the ‘train’ of around 60 satellites passing overhead. It was amazing! We checked on the interweb the next day and found that we should be able to see it for the next couple of nights, which indeed we did last night in Motueka – although with more light pollution there it wasn’t quite as bright.
After a morning spent catching up on chores in Motueka, today we headed south down the Motueka River valley. Charlie had been hoping to cast a line for trout in this river, but with the rain over the last few days it was too high and too dirty.
We checked out several freedom camping spots and several DOC campsites on the way through to St Arnaud, a little settlement on the northern side of Lake Rotoiti in the Nelson Lakes District. This area is the sandfly capital of New Zealand – even the DOC brochures warn you to “be sure to take insect repellent for the ferocious sandflies”!
Despite the really warm temperatures of the last few weeks, today was a reality check. It was 19 degrees in Motueka at 9am this morning, and hovered around 18-20 until the early afternoon. As we got further inland, the temperature dropped as we got nearer to the rainclouds which seemed to be hugging the hills, and it was 8 degrees and raining steadily by the time we reached our overnight camping spot: the DOC campsite at Kerr Bay, Lake Rotoiti. There had even been some snow on the hills at the head of the lake!
Charlie thought he might try for a fish off the shore of the lake, but he found it was so high there was no access other than off the end of the jetty! He’s not having much luck, poor man…
We are set up for the night in a little alcove surrounded by native forest and bellbirds, with the sound of gentle drips on the roof to lull us to sleep. The satellite train should pass by again tonight, though as we have thick cloud cover here, we won’t be able to see it.Leer más