Rising Fog on the Canterbury Plains -

It rained all night long :(  For some reason, this seemed to keep me awake for much of the night - odd, because I usually find the sound of rain on the roof quite soothing.  I guess I must be worrying about something........maybe the risks involved in heading towards sub-zero temperatures in a potentially snowy and icy environment.  They say (whoever 'they' are) that you should do something each day that scares/challenges you.  I'm not sure about the 'each day' part, but this trip is certainly challenging me beyond my usual comfort zones.  Challenging but exciting.  Maybe that's what kept me awake.

Anyhoo, left Weedons camp and headed towards the city to hopefully buy some snow chains.  The place I'd found online that seemed the most likely to be able to supply turned out to be an absolutely awesome bunch!  Very helpful, very patient, very knowledgeable, keen to ensure total customer satisfaction.  I had a fitting lesson which took the safety aspects of fitting very seriously and I left with a pair of chains, confident in my ability to safely fit them as and if required.  The hope of course is that I won't need to use them, but if I do, I'm good to go.

On then to Ashburton and a coffee with teejay - always a lovely catch-up.  This catch-up was a bit more special though as her brother is my house-sitter whilst I'm away.  We even did a little van-utilities shopping together!  I'm now feeling very ready for the trip to the cold interior......Decided that tonight would be spent a few more kms down the road in Timaru.  From here I will check the weather tomorrow morning before deciding which route to Twizel I shall take - the Fairlie route out of Timaru or the Waitaki Valley route, a little further south.  

I'm in awe of how Captain Scott (of the Antarctic) ever managed to plan his trips - I'm tired just planning a trip to Twizel!

So - today's pic - very late in the day, just on sunset south of Ashburton, a fog beginning to rise in the paddocks with the Southern Alps beginning to rise in the background.  The promise of what's hopefully to come........

[map reference is not accurate]