Well the expected rain came overnight and when we got up was pouring. I had had the worst nights sleep. We packed the car and waited until 9am before going to the tour office. Of course the walk has been cancelled and I was offered a place in the afternoon walk. I asked the girl if she expected it to go ahead considering the conditions. She said they would make the decision just before the start of the walk. I asked for a refund and she processed the paperwork. We headed off with visibility of only 150m. We got to Haast where we got some fuel and then found the toilet block. As it was still raining we took our morning tea in the toilets as it was the only place it wasn't raining. We continued on toward Wanaka. The amount of water coming from the mountains was amazing with waterfalls visible everywhere. The water was just gushing out the side of the mountains onto the roadside where it flowed down until it could pass into the river systems. The rivers that we were driving along were fast flowing with the large amount of water entering the river system. We arrived in Wanaka and went to Hotel Wanaka to check in but the lady at the desk told us check in wasn't until 2pm so we had an hour to kill. As it was still raining we put on our raincoats and wondered to the supermarket and grabbed some supplies. As it was so miserable and cold we went back to the hotel and waited in the reception area until our room was available. I decided to have a quiet afternoons while mum went for a small explore around the Lake. I went out later and just wondered for 40min around and was amazed at the number of coffee shops and bars and how many people were in each of them. There are a lot of tourists, especially Asian in the area.
