So Much Rain in Reefton

Thursday 23 October

Thanks to Louis’ avid weather app watching, we were in exactly the right spot when the long predicted “weather event” arrived on Wednesday night around 10pm. The rain was quite strong all night, but we only got a few wild gusts hitting us in the morning, along with some loud and rumbly grumbly thunder rolling around the hills.

I woke at 7ish to find we were not floating nor lying on our side, so I popped the electric heater on… until it stopped suddenly 10 minutes later as the power went out around the district!

Fortunately we had everything charged up so we holed up for the morning with Louis working on Alyssa’s new song, me catching up on some blogging and most importantly both of us catching up with the latest Celebrity Traitors episode.

Finally, around lunchtime the rain eased and there was even a hint of sunshine over Reefton. We pulled on rain jackets and waterproof boots and strolled confidently down to Broadway in search of a pie for Louis for lunch. Reader, the cupboard was bare… most places were shut after the storms and power outages and those that were open had little to offer. It was cool spotting Basant on a poster for an upcoming event at the RSA - he is a very talented Indian Tabla player and has played with the Nukes on several occasions.

So we bought a gorgeous print to put up on the wall in Banjo and headed back to a DIY lunch. The Penultimate Supper by Ruth Vaega and shows various native NZ birds and how endangered they are - we loved it!

Another lovely chat with our hosts and their cheeky Schnauzer Razz, a siesta and then we gambled on good weather again and went out to walk the Power Station Loop - Reefton was the earliest settlement in NZ to produce its own hydro power and is very proud of this! Along the way we met Astra & Saturn, two gorgeous and very excited curly coated retrievers. Their owner told us that this breed was a common gun dog before WW1 but somehow the breeding programme stalled as young men of the land went off to war.

Dinner was also in Banjo - a Mexican mish mash of mince and stuff - then I got some more steps for my Fitbit walking round the neighbourhood before retiring to bed for the penultimate episode of “Slow Horses” which remains top of our weekly TV addictions - wow!