05.12.2019 Tornado hits Otago, when things don't go as planned

We, at Lake Dunstan in Otago, are enjoying the sun and taking a nap.

We knew that a big storm was supposed to hit New Zealand, mainly affecting the West Coast, which we were planning to travel to next. That's why we wanted to 'wait it out' for a few days at Lake Dunstan.

So when we woke up from our nap, we checked the weather and the news, as we wanted to hike up Roy's Peak, which is about 1600 meters high, near the West Coast, but that's not possible in bad weather.

The news told us that a tornado had hit Otago, at Lake Dunstan.. around 3 PM.. while we were taking our nap and didn't notice anything :-D. It was 200 meters away from us and uprooted a few trees, so we were glad it didn't hit the tree next to us.

The weather forecast was also strange. Just rain with up to 200 liters of water per square meter on the West Coast, and the road there was closed due to flooding, so we were stranded.

4 nights later at Lake Dunstan, we have now set off to Twizel via the Lindis Pass. It was a detour of 300 km for us for a few days, but the weather should be nice there, and we certainly don't mind having some self-caught salmon.

At Lake Dunstan, Mike had already caught a big bass and trout for dinner :-).

The weather is expected to calm down by Monday, and then we will probably return to Wanaka, hike up Roy's Peak, and then start traveling up the West Coast.

See you soon :-)

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