Kiwi road-trip

We planned to do a 4-day bike-ride along the Otago Central Rail Trail with our friends Rog and Wendy. But Tropical Cyclone Alfred disrupted that plan by hitting the Gold Coast and flooding our creek crossing and closing the airport. So we had to miss our flight and cancel the bike trip. Rog and Wendy live in Coffs Harbour and made it out through Sydney.

So we flew to Queenstown on the Thursday rather than the Monday and got settled in to an AirBnB.

Queenstown beach, looking down Lake Wakatipu

Plenty of Asian tourists

We walked to the top of Queenstown Hill which provided some awesome views.

We drove up to Glenorchy at the head of the lake, and did a short walk up the Routeburn Track.

Roaring Meg

Driving to Glenorchy along Lake Wakatipu

The Routeburn Track is three days long. We just did a couple of hours, but it was very beautiful.

Bridal veil falls

George looking for a hobbit

We left Queenstown and drove to Wanaka, across the stunning Haast Pass, and then up the West Coast.

Lake Wanaka

Lake Hawea, on the road to the Haast Pass

Lake Hawea

River on the West Coast

We provisioned in Hokitika and found a rather special AirBnB called The Nest at Hurunui Jacks. 

Feeding eels

The West Coast is famous for rain. It arrived!

A flightless weka

A walk in the rain on Hokitika Beach. Lots of driftwood, some of it assembled into sculpture.

Driftwood dragon

Beachcomber's shack

Cyclone Alfred

All eyes on SE Queensland as Tropical Cyclone Alfred barrels in towards Brisbane and the Gold Coast.

We have been preparing; firstly helping to get Antidote as secure as possible. She is tied up in Hope Harbour marina. Genoa off, mainsail trussed up, extra ropes etc. 

Plenty of work at home too; preparing to lose power and for the creek crossing to flood, as it will.

Meanwhile the surfers are enjoying some once-in-a-generation conditions, particularly at Kirra.

The critical thing for us is the creek crossing between us and the city.

One bit of good news for us was that the home batteries worked better than expected, providing power through the night for two fridges and a freezer and still having 61% in the morning.

Plenty rain at Springbrook, up the road above us.

Seven days loss of power took it's toll. Here are some Energex workers in the middle of the night trying to restore it.