http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/8135...e-on-main-road
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/ar...ectid=10856963

Suddenly, off-season travel doesn't seem to bad.

thanks for posting..interesting
it is amazing how you become more interested in the local news of a country once youve been there
those rivers are awesome..cant imagine being caught up in an epic storm on the west coast
we were there in november and the surf was very rough even in fairly good weather

I know a lot of travelers to NZ come during summer because they expect warmer, less stormy weather, but summer weather can be very unsettled on both islands. This current storm is certainly extreme. Milford Road was also closed earlier in December.

I'm with you, Melnq8, I much prefer off-season travel, and not only in NZ. Lower prices, fewer folks holidaying. As you know, you can get encounter rain and bad weather or sunny clear blue skies anytime here in NZ.

I think autumn is the best time to come to NZ. Still somewhat warm, more settled weather, gorgeous autumn leaves, lower prices and fewer folks holidaying.

Agreed. I like Sept in NZ in particular, atlhough I certainly envy you living there fulltime Diamantina.

I envy you, melnq8, living in Australia, one of my two favorite travel destinations. And among my best travel experiences are those I've enjoyed in Western Australia.

Oddly, we traveled more around NZ when we just holidayed here. Now, because of work, we don't get around too much; we generally just make day trips or sometimes get away for the weekend. Fortunately, there are a lot of beautiful places in or around Dunedin or just a few hours away that we can get to in the course of a day or during a weekend.

More on the weather: this morning, due to heavy snowfall, travelers had to be rescued from Lindis Pass. Apparently, there was snowfall in Central Otago last January as well. So much for our warmer summer weather! They say it will warm up for the weekend, though.

So true, lanejohann, I think many of us pay more attention to what is going on in a country after having traveled there.

Froze my butt off in Christchurch one Christmas, '74 I think' and then very hot in the Mackenzie country. And (at the risk of being boringly repetitive) they call it the TEMPERATE zone.

It's hard to imagine 'rescue' and 'Lindis Pass' being used in the same sentence - 3,186 feet isn't exactly high elevation. We had some snow issues while we were there in June too - Christchurch practically came to a halt - but it was JUNE, so not completely unexpected.

If there's one thing NZ can be counted on for though, it's bizarre weather. And sheep.

I can't tell you how many Kiwis we've met on the SI who had no idea what we were talking about when we mentioned other parts of the island. It's kind of strange how people who live in a place don't visit their own backyard, but the day-to-day does tend to get in the way, doesn't it?