Do the Southern Alps really exist?

Well, what a week I have had! On Sunday I boarded a plane for Hokitika. Now, one would think that when Air NZ checks a passenger in and checks a bag through to Hokitika they *should* have known (and informed me) that all flights for that destination had been cancelled that day. I guess it was much more fun for them to have me arrive in Christchurch to find that the weather over the Alps was stormy and no planes were flying. No rental cars available at all, and no public transport to get me to my final destination in Greymouth left me wondering how the heck I was going to get there in time for the start of my RMA Accreditation training by 9am on Monday morning. All flights the next day were fully booked, so I was happy to take up the suggestion that I wait around a few hours in case the weather broke.
Finally, around 8pm an Air NZ staff member said they saw a “window of opportunity” and “would take a chance” at getting the tired and grumpy stranded passengers into Hokitika. They wished us luck as we boarded the plane which didn’t exactly inspire confidence.
The plane was tiny, and decided to imitate a roller coaster crossed with a bungy and I was not at all impressed when one of the crew mentioned that he hoped we would see the runway before we landed.
As you can no doubt tell, I got there safely - and survived the drive from hell through a nasty, nasty storm to Greymouth.

The RMA Accreditation is a new thing dreamt up by central government. Any commissioners or councillors hearing Resource Management cases must undertake certification which is provided through the University of Auckland. These training sessions took place in many venues throughout the country and I was scheduled to attend training in Palmerston North but had to change this when my invitation to Hui Taumata arrived. By then, nearly all the training workshops were fully booked - strangely, Greymouth wasn’t.

The training was just great and I enjoyed mingling with councillors from several areas of the South Island - very interesting to talk about issues common to all our councils and the different ways we each handle them. It is so easy to forget that when we are dealing with the growing compliance costs in meeting obligations central government keeps imposing on us, that local government is being hit hard no matter the size of its population. We can protest the costs put onto our council but it is sobering to be reminded that the same costs are going onto councils which have very small ratepayer bases.
Greymouth was hot, and cold, and stormy then sunny, and on Wednesday had the densest fog I have seen for a very long time. I had managed to pick up the ‘flu at the hui and was pretty miserable in the changeable weather of Greymouth. Walls were very thin in the hotel I was staying in and I just wonder if the people in the room next to mine were put off their nocturnal exercising by my hacking cough!
Wednesday afternoon back in Hokitika was fine, but the weather packed it in again by early evening when I was due to fly out. Hokitika was booked out with everyone arriving for the Wild Foods Festival and I was unable to contact anyone from the rental car agency so was facing another night in Greymouth. Someone must have been watching over me though as I did manage to fly out and was not in town when the tornedo struck yesterday.
Flying with the ‘flu is not much fun, my ears are still ringing and I am sure the airconditioning on the planes has made me worse. I have now flown in a small plane over the Southern Alps twice - and still haven’t seen anything but dark clouds. Are the Alps really there? Has anyone seen them? If seeing is believing then I can say they don’t exist
I hope the Community Development workshop went well last night - I was just too ill to be there, but, at least I am home in one piece. I am NOT in any hurry to get back to Westland and if I do go back, it won’t be by plane!