Snowy Lewis Pass

We got up at early enough to have breakfast out in Hanmer Springs (if you're ever there, do try the Powerhouse Cafe.........very nice!) and waited for the road update, which, the roading site said, would be "updated before 9.00am".

At 8:58am it was updated - road open :)  Yay!

Hopped in the cars, drove to the main road and sighed a long, deep sigh when we saw the l-o-n-g line of virtually static traffic ahead.  Nothing for it but to join the queue and crawl!

To be fair, it did get moving after about half an hour, though certainly not to full speed.  Still, we were heading in the right direction.

As we neared the Lewis Pass itself I was wondering what all the fuss was about - there was hardly any snow and the trees that the local news described as 'bending under the weight of the snow' had obviously finished their bending.  They certainly didn't have much snow!  As we crossed the summit though, things changed very quickly........snow was thicker, roadsides had been cleared and the snow stood deep at the roadsides, trees were bending and snow was falling in big clumps from those trees and landing heavily on passing vehicles (the dusty looking snow on the left is falling snow).  It looked spectacular and sooo different to just a few kms back.

Arriving at Springs Junction the road became a mess - traffic backed up on our (northbound) side but southbound traffic held back behind a 'Road Closed' barrier!  It turned out that a truck had slipped off the road somewhere along the snowy road and things became too dangerous to have traffic pass it.  Bummer for those travelling south, especially if they'd done what we'd done and waited patiently for the road to open just a few hours earlier!

Arrived home eventually around 2.00 after dropping K off and topping the fuel up.  This was one journey I'll be sure to remember!