We woke up to a blanket of snow and it was pretty chilly outside as well as inside our campervan. We ate breakfast and then got ready to set off but somebody informed us that SH1 was closed due to the bad weather. We checked online where it said there would be an update at 12pm but the road was closed until further notice. We assumed the road passed through a mountainous area as although there was snow on the ground it was melting really fast. We had to leave the campsite by 10am so we decided to just sit and wait for the road to open. We approached SH1 and there stood a bright orange flashing light confirming that the road was closed, so we went to McDonald's for a hot drink. I laughed hysterically at a report in the local newspaper about a woman who took a wrong turn on 'Coronet Peak' ski field and ended up travelling 10km to a farmhouse! We had another hot drink and then drove past the sign that still informed us that the road was closed. We were by this point getting quite frustrated just hanging around so we went for a drive along the 'Otago Peninsula'. However, we only drove about half way as it was never-ending and we didn't want to waste too much fuel. We drove back to Dunedin city centre and parked outside of Domino's pizza. We thought we may as well continue eating junk food so we got a special deal which consisted of a large pizza, garlic bread, chips and a bottle of Pepsi for around ten pound. We sat in our campervan and ate and it was then that I noticed people using the road up ahead. We finished eating and then finally made our way onto SH1.

There was barely any snow on the road yet people were driving with snow chains on at less than 20kph! Andrew had a look of despair on his face and neither of us could understand why it had taken until 1pm to open the road. Anyway, we managed to pass the two only other vehicles in front of us and so we felt like we were making at least some progress. We made a stop at the 'Moeraki Boulders' which we could see in the distance on the beach. It was bitterly cold so we walked fairly fast as Andrew tried to work out whether the tide was coming in or going out. We literally just reached the boulders, which were unusually large and perfectly spherical, as it started to snow, but we managed to take a couple of photographs before a large wave came towards us and reached the cliff. I screamed and jumped onto a rock as I grabbed hold of the cliff side with my one good arm, but I ended up with clay smeared all over my hand. Andrew didn't have to wonder anymore as the tide was very clearly coming in and doing so fast. We began to run back along the beach as the weather turned to a snow blizzard. I was admittedly quite scared and my hand felt frozen as I had stupidly tried to rub the clay off in the snow. I was glad to reach our campervan but I was close to tears as I tried to warm up my frozen hand! We continued our journey to Oamaru where we found a 'Top 10' campsite for the night. It was so wet that we didn't fancy walking around so we instead went for a drive around the Victorian town centre. It was perfectly nice enough and the old buildings were well-preserved and very grand, but Oamaru was missing one thing, which was people. The town centre was completely dead and although it was a miserable rainy day the shops and cafes were all closed. We couldn't quite work out why but we headed to 'New World' supermarket as we thought beer would be the best form of entertainment for the rest of the rainy day. We were just approaching the checkout as the member of staff began eyeballing us as we were about to buy alcohol, so before we were even asked I asked whether we needed ID, which is frustratingly the norm in New Zealand. We drove back to our campsite and chilled out for the rest of the evening.