Murchison to Lyell

January 1 and we woke up with a massive hangover and just 5 hours of sleep but we still decided to do a bit of cycling. We got as far as Lyell and the trip today was easy stuff, almost all downhill and the sun in our faces. The DOC-campsite in Lyell is set in spectacular scenery. We arrived early so we went for a 2 hour walk in the nearby mountains. The forests here are just stunning, very lush, dark green and damp with little waterfalls coming down from the sheer mountain walls. A very inquisitive native bird, the Weka, spent the day going in and out our tent, looking for stuff to eat. Ella chased the poor bird until he got tired and dissapeared.

Late afternoon the wind started to pick up and we had an early night. However, extremely heavy rainfall woke us up and we didn´t catch most sleep for most of the night. The noise of the rain on the tent was so loud, pretty impressive.

When we woke up the next morning we couldn´t believe out eyes. The rain, which was still coming down heavily, had converted the front tent in a lake, and water was coming into the main tent. We quickly got our stuff together and hid it under a small shelter at the top of the campsite. There were a few other people there but they couldn´t help us. Their campervans had no room for our gear. We were stuck and the rain just kept falling. In a last desperate attempt to get us out of here, I approached a German couple with a campervan and they were willing to take Vanessa and Ella towards Westport, which was my main concern. I wasn´t keen on cycling in these conditions but I was a lot less keen to have Ella in this weather for much longer. The roads were flooded and just as I was preparing to get going, Ben and Saskia drove up the campsite. Vanessa and I fell on our knees...it´s hard to explain how we felt. the relief when we saw them...we kissed them as if we were family who hadn´t seen each other for 5 years. Pure joy!!! We got our stuff in their van and as we drove to Westport, we realised this would have been absolute hell to cycle through. The rain was worse as we approached Westport; all along the road there were everywhere waterfalls that spontaneously emerged from the mountainsides; big rocks lay in the middle of the road...scary stuff. Welcome to the South Island!

Once we got to Westport we checked into the Trip Inn Backpackeres while Ben and Saskia decided to continue South. We hope they are not going too far, we might need their help!

It is January 3 and we are still stuck in Westport due to the hurrendous weather