Contrasts and mixed fortunes

When I went to bed last night I thought I had set the alarm for a 5.00am wake-up. Seems I failed to press the vital 'save' button and awoke with a start at 6.10. A quick glance out the window told me that stars were visible sufficiently to assume a relatively clear sky. A rapid dress - no time for breakfast or shower - then a quick drive along the road to Lake Matheson to photograph some beautiful sunrise Mt Cook reflections in the lake. Or so I hoped. Turned into a bit of a fizzer. The small piece of sky I saw stars in was part of a very small area of the sky to be clear and there was the lightest of breezes so the lake had a shimmer rather than the mirror-like surface I'd hoped for. Still, a brisk walk around a beautiful lake at 6.30am was still an enjoyable outing and the shots I did take still look pretty neat. Back to the campground for a shower and leisurely breakfast before leaving at about the same time I would normally leave a site. Amazing difference to how much can be packed into the day when it begins at the crack of dawn!

I'd barely gone a handful of kms when the first of the raindrops fell - and they're still falling now at 8.30pm. I don't know if it was the rain or maybe driving on the 'wrong' side of the road but about an hour later I came across a scene that was initialy quite chilling - skid marks across the road (seemingly from the 'wrong' side to the 'right' side), a car in the ditch looking very much the worse for wear, another vehicle - a van - stopped at a peculiar angle and about half a dozen people standing around looking shaken. It turned out the driver of the car had been taken back down the road to the motel these people had just come from. No-one in this group was hurt thankfully. I stopped to see if there was anything I could do and was asked if I could fit these people in my van and take them back to the motel too. No problems. It was the least I could do to get them out of the rain and back to somewhere where they could deal with whatever they needed to deal with. I still have no idea how the whole scene fitted together, who'd done what, whether it was a one or a two vehicle accident, which vehicle these people had been in........the interpreter/guide with these people told me that no-one had been seriously hurt but the driver and another occupant of the car were in shock. As I drove back down the road and passed the wreck again I noticed a rental company logo on the rear windscreen......a suggestion maybe that, with hardly any traffic on the road, a tourist had forgotten which side of the road we drive on....... I guess things could have been so much worse - I'm thankful for all concerend they weren't.

I drove slowly on, stopping at a few spots along the way. The rain made it a bit unpleasant, though in lots of ways, it added to the atmosphere. Stopped at Bruce Bay for a rest and a snack otherwise it was just a slow drive with a few stops. Stopping tonight at Pleasant Flat where this shot was taken just a few metres along the road from the bridge. It doesn't seem terribly pleasant in the rain though I like the way the clouds dance in and out of the trees.

I'm thinking an early night and possibly another early start tomorrow. Hope the rain subsides before I arrive at Otematata tomorrow or we could be in for a very wet few days with our cameras out and about in Otago. More on that later.

G'night for now
:)