We have been incredibly lucky that for the most part, our travels around the South Island have been relatively dry. Our arrival back up in to the Nelson/Tasman region was to change that. This part of the country had already suffered some terrible weather with huge amounts of flooding, roads washed out and slips along highways. Our journey from Murchison to Lake Rotoroa was wet. Lakes are beautiful all year around and in any weather in my humble opinion, but even we struggled to find motivation for a walk! We had to wait for the road to be opened at Kawatiri Junction so that we could complete our journey to Lake Rotoiti. Thankfully, the DoC site at Kerr Bay has a brilliant shelter with a gas cooker and sinks as well as powered sites. It was raining so hard that we just hunkered down and hoped like mad that the next day would be a little drier. Saturday morning, the DoC Ranger knocked on the van door to inform us that all roads in and out of St. Arnaud were closed due to the weather and the damage caused to the roads. Ah well. Worse places to be stranded. So we walked in to town and had coffee and muffins at the Alpine Lodge – both very good! https://www.alpinelodge.co.nz/ We decided to return in the evening to watch the rugby and have a pizza – great evening. Pizzas were super tasty! Sunday was even drier so we finally managed a short walk. We saw so many different types of fungi. Glorious walk through a beech forest. Such a beautiful lake – even in bad weather.