Lake Rotoiti

Hello everyone,
We left Westport yesterday morning in the pouring rain. The road we took closely follows the Buller River through the Buller Gorge--a huge, wide river that was violently rushing with all the added water. We arrived in St Arnaud, a small town on the edge of the magnificent Lake Rotoiti. It was warm and humid because of the rain, which brought out the ferocious sandflies by the thousands. We tired of fighting them off and went back to our cabin to eat and watch TV. This morning, however, was completely different. The strong winds during the night had moved the humidity and the sandflies out. The sun was out and we left this morning for a hike around the lake. The path goes through beech forest, which is not unusual for us, but the smell was different. We cannot figure out why--maybe the black moss transforms in the heat. It smelled like vinegar! So, an hour and a half into the hike we moved onto the beach; dropped our clothes and jumped into the clear, cool ? cold water. We spread out on the rocks and soaked in the sun and watched clouds float overhead before hiking back. Stopped at the general store in search of root beer--sarsaparilla was the closest thing--and vanilla ice cream to make floats. Yummy on a warm day. Tomorrow we are leaving early for Blenheim--the wine country and wander down the coast over the next week. We've heard of the airport security situation and are planning to get to the airport much earlier than we had planned. We miss everyone and look forward to coming home and into a routine. Hugs, Linny