The rain started tippling down at about eleven o’clock last night and it was still teeming down as we looked out through the window this morning. While talking to our “landlady” yesterday evening I admired the view and we talked about how it changes every day. Well, yes - this photo was taken from almost the same position as the one posted on this site yesterday. What a difference!
There was no chance of the heli hike I was booked on going ahead this morning and, in fact, although I rebooked for the afternoon tour, that was cancelled as well. We stayed in our room for most of the day, reading the paper, writing emails, doing crosswords and sudoku, scribing postcards and watching movies on the Movie Channel - we don’t always have that in our room, so we were lucky today!
Dave worked very hard at the computer!
I went out briefly in the car (to buy more postcards!) and ventured on a little further out of the village and across the Bailey bridge. The Waiho River, which is fed by the Franz Josef Glacier, and is quite often no more than a series of narrow streamlets, was a wide, grey, uninviting mass of water racing along over the boulders.
We did manage to find a short window in which the rain stopped and took the opportunity to breathe in a little fresh air as we took a walk down the road on which we’d entered the village yesterday. On our return, I spotted a tui. The bird is well known in New Zealand and we’ve heard about it on many an occasion, but this was the first time I’ve been able to identify it. From the way he flew from branch to branch, possibly snapping up insects, I’d say he was pleased about the break in the rain too.
Jean
