It had been a shock to us as we got out at Wanaka, the air was freezing! The drop in temperature was drastic. Here in the mountains you needed everything you'd got. It was woolly hat weather.
I guess the skydiving urge is genetic. Joe had volunteered to do one and I'd booked him in at Glenorchy. Trouble was, the weather was no good for jumping out of a plane. The wind had been fierce in the night at Bendigo, and Lake Wakatipu was whipped up at Glenorchy, with rain showers. Snow had fallen in the night on nearby hills. So we kicked our heels at Glenorchy. I had allowed a few days spare in this area. It is a beautiful place, hugged by impressive mountains. If you walk out without a camera you feel conspicuous. There must also be a word to describe a compulsion to take photos. It is like a disease round here.
Having rung Skydive Southern Alps about four times to get weather updates and being told it was all 'on hold' we headed out to Glacier Burn, a place to overnight if you were self-contained. We had a stunning view of snowy mountains. The walk was 1-2 hours and we decided to do some of it. Light snow fell as we set out. A river to traverse was a challenge. How to avoid taking your boots off and get to the other side. We grabbed pieces of rotted trees, huge rocks were thrown in, and after about 20 minutes we all made it across. I pointed out to people that we had to get back across and that you shoud never go somewhere if you hadn't thought about how to get back. The walk, aided by red markers on trees, took us into a forest (probably part of Fangorn!) and up through steep climbs, the forest floor covered in ferns. Fungi were strange to see in April for us, as we had been through a hard winter, heading for spring and now thrust back into autumn. Before it got dark we made it back to the motorhome. Freya got her boots wet in the river.
