Icy Roads

This afternoon I had to take my youngest son T to Richmond for his guitar lesson. Richmond is about one and half hours from here.

The trip was a very scenic one, due to the snow that fell yesterday. I was amazed at the amount of snow that had fallen on the ground, right from the Owen Valley through to the Nelson side of the Hope Saddle. The closer we got to the Hope Saddle, the thicker the snow got.

This picture was taken on the way home late this afternoon, from near the top of the Hope Saddle. The road was very slushy, due to a combination of snow melting, and newly spread grit that had been layered on the road. My guess is that the road will be very slippery tomorrow morning, should we get a frost overnight.

There wasn't a lot of traffic on the road, due to the Lewis Pass still being closed - the Lewis Pass is the main alpine pass between here and Christchurch, and it has been closed for 2 days now, due to the heavy dumping of snow and treacherous driving conditions. Hopefully it will reopen tomorrow.