Queenstown SNOWED in SPRING !?!

Day 8... and first half (3 Oct’09). Panic stricken!

Andrea yesterday’s paragliding was cancelled due to some wind problem (too strong perhaps…?!), hence she postponed it to today’s morning session; meaning that we will depart to Christchurch once she’s done (no, am not doing the paragliding due to my leg injury and operation in March; sooo many has been asking me this. Sigh…). We were thinking to stay one night in Twizel since it’s a 7-8 hours drive to Christchurch and ofcos due to the reason that we are departing at noon thus no way we can reach before dusk. Supposedly overlooking Mount Cook, it being the closest town.

I woke up this morning at about 8ish (stayed up all night surfing, internet is FREE here at Deco Backpacker and they have WIRELESS!!!!), saw Andrea sitting on bed, haven’t budge, haven’t showered, looking at her either handphone or iPod…. I was wondering and saying out loud “Awat tak siap lagi? Kul 8.30am kena sampai The Station kan?” And her reply made all the plans topsy turvy! Her reply was…..

“Aku rasa paragliding cancel kot” she said, I asked how come? Have you called them? You can’t be assuming right… She said “It’s SNOWING OUTSIDE!” I was still in a daze ofcos, thinking I heard it wrong, I mean; it is freaking OCTOBER ie SPRING!!!! “HUH!?!??!” She repeated “SNOW”, and ofcos I thought she was pulling my leg lar, it was bright and clear and sunny and…. whatever just yesterday, remember my Arrowtown blog?! Even the pics show sunny bright sun beaming at us. “Selak langsir nak tengok” I said, still not believing; I slept at 2am in the morning, NOOOOO sign of snow at all. She flips the curtain and ‘Tah Dah…… ‘ SNOW POURING NON STOP, everything but everything is covered snowy white, I meant; REALLY COVERED!

SHUCKS!!!!! Her paragliding canceled ofcos. Worried as we never driven in this weather condition before…. HOW???? Scared sick I am, those who knows me well know that I can be a liiiiiittle bit paranoid at times. And THIS IS THE TIME!!!!!!! Ahhhhhhhh…… HELP!!! Can we drive in snow, what’s the visibility like, is the road slippery, which is the best route, will the snow stop, do we need chain, do we need to BUY chain, is the whole New Zealand snowing…. Question upon question in my mind. I think I was “pale-r” than the white snow.

I log on and post in my Facebook my thoughts, scared shit becos it suddenly snowed, never driven during snow before and I’m SCARED! (redundant sentence, told you I‘m paranoid). Lotsa of replies, some said they hope I drove a 4x4, I need chain, some wishes good luck, or drive slowly etc etc etc… Simon sent me a link of safety driving in snow condition… I was still scared but I felt LOVED and SAFE at the same time….ahhahah…..*HIAW*… (but REALLY! THANKS guys!)

We figure we should start early right, we got ourselves ready to check-out, called to cancel the paragliding, and enquired from the helpful hostel manager on how safe is it to drive. He suggested we don’t go towards Mount Cook as it might just snow as well there, and that Lindis Pass might have avalanche if the snow is heavy etc and looking at our inexperience face…. He knows we were worried (or at least I was). He asked us to use the coastal road which is slightly further but definitely safer and that is what we did. He however did calmed us down saying that normally it only snows in Queenstown as the mountainous areas attracts the snow (must be some SEXY mountain I say! Hehhehee…). Out of Queenstown should be “normal” and ok. Phew…. But we prefer to see to believe… Kiasee!

We took the same route we took to Arrowtown instead of Lake Hayes road we figure it’s safer since there’s more cars. BEEP! WRONG! More mountain more like it and the whole field was COVERED WHITE. I can’t even see the sheeps (the cow can lar as they are normally black or brown right)…aiyooo… lagi lar panic kan.

As we drove more outskirt, we noticed the snow starts to become lesser (as this how it should be describe? Any better word? Hemmm..) And after half an hour or so, the snow just disappear… MAGIC!!!! WOW! God is TRULY GREAT! (I was praying none stop during the drive). We calmed down obviously by then…. Alhamdullillah….

We drove straight to Christchurch with a few interesting stops along the way. Will blog about it in next entry.

PS : Hey! I just experienced almost every season in one trip, I have the sun, the flower blooming, the red yellow leaves and it just SNOWED. Hahaha….. Such a value for money trip!

Credits : Wikipedia, Deco Backpacker