This weekend was our Uni Student/young people’s retreat at Mt Hutt Retreat. We were expecting around 20 people plus our family (+7). I was doing the cooking, and Kris was on the guitar.
We planned to leave as soon as we could after school on Friday but didn’t end up leaving until after 4.30pm. It just took ages to pack the car (I’d sorted/packed all our gear it just needed to go into the car) with our belongings and all the food for the camp plus Kris’s guitar, music etc. We could barely fit it all in!
We stopped in Darfield for fish and chips and popped in to see a friend and get some directions on-line as we weren’t 100% sure where we were needed to go.
By now it was dark and so off we headed eating our fish and chips in the dark, trying to find our way to Mt Hutt Retreat.
We took a wrong turn (correct according to googlemaps!) and ended up in a camping ground/natural reserve type area (hard to tell as it was dark) so turned back and went the way we originally thought we were to go and found the camp at last.
It was FREEZING when we got out of the car. There was a really icy wind blowing and it was pretty cold inside the hall until we fired up the heaters. We were expecting snow during the weekend and it had been a very mild day on Friday. As we’d driven towards the mountains the norwest arc was impressive (snow often follows a norwester).
Once we’d unloaded all our stuff, claimed a room, sorted the retreat food, and fed children we began to wonder where everyone was!
An hour later at around 8pm everyone arrived. Strangely it was now very mild outside and no wind!!
We got the fires roaring and settled down for our first session led by David Bayne, followed by supper. We all went to bed pretty late, around midnight as we stayed up singing and mucking around.
Saturday morning was clear and mild so after breakfast the kids headed outside to play on the awesome playground and run down a big hill which went down to a large field. We decided to put off our second session to make the most of the fine weather as we knew that the weather was due to close in later in the day.
Literally minutes later the bad weather came rolling down the hills behind us, you could see the big grey cloud moving down and the mild warm temperature was replaced with icy cold temperatures. So we came inside and after morning tea settled down for the second session.
Rain started and quickly turned into a heavy snowfall. The snow settled quickly on the ground and it was so beautiful.
I made lunch and after lunch we all headed out into the snow. It was freezing outside and the snow was still falling heavily, getting deeper. It was great snow and we had lots of fun.
It soon became apparent that the snow wasn’t stopping and we began to think about evacuating. We only had food to last us until Sunday lunch, the power was likely to cut out with the snow and water could freeze in the pipes. Mr Bayne took his van down the drive to see how the road was and when he got back said we needed to pack up and leave as soon as possible.
So less than 24 hours later we were packing up! We left at 3.30pm and drove very slowly, in convoy down the drive.
It was a bit scary, we were worried we’d slide a bit on the snow but we didn’t. There were 7 cars and we all drove together and finally made it to Ashburton about 5pm (normally takes 40 mins).
The Baynes graciously offered to have everyone stay and continue on with the retreat at their house (or find places for people to stay the night) and we decided it would be easier if we headed home. The kids all had colds and Miriam and Faith had fevers too. So home we came.
We found Christchurch had a snow dump too – just enough to cover everything in a layer of white.
So here we are safe and sound at home but sad to have missed out on the rest of the retreat (and the yummy food I’d planned)!
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The snow pics are amazing and everyone looks like they’re having fun. Woohoo.