more weather shenanigans: Sunshine Coast

Oh, Christmas. Why must you be so tetchy this year?

As if the weather (and other) related travel shenanigans getting to see Mum and Roy weren't enough, our trip up to see Dad was also fraught with wintry perils. OK, slightly drama queen of me. But still...

We got up to the Sunshine Coast and checked in to the Rockwater Secret Cove Resort without problem. I left Conrad to do work and visited a while up the road with Dad, Bella, and Mark. When I got back, we changed and had a lovely dinner in the hotel dining room, partook of the huge soaker tub, and wound down the night. Got up yesterday morning, drove in to Sechelt, had a swim then breakfast and coffee at Wheatberries Bakery, returned to the hotel before heading up to see Dad for the day.

And then the storm blew through.






It was an impressive affair. We didn't pay it much mind at first, but it was snowing - wet snow - when we got back to the hotel from Sechelt, and an hour later there was a heavy, sticky coat layer on the car. Already there were a few inches on the roof of the vehicle. Hmmmm. The resort, I should add, is accessed by a road up over a small hill. Our vehicle, I should further add, had nothing resembling snow tires. One futile attempt later and we were calling Dad and settling down to lunch in the hotel dining room. Not the worst fate.

Of course it didn't end there. Shortly after we'd eaten - and while we were still in the dining room - the power went out. In fact, swathes of the Sunshine Coast were affected. The heavy snow took its toll on tree branches all around, and we had a dimmer setting to show for it.

Conrad and I ventured out a bit on the hotel grounds while all this was going on. The wind kicked up and sent us scurrying out from among the trees - wet masses of snow were flying from off the branches by that point. We stuck to the room for a while.

As the storm passed, Conrad felt a little cabin-feverish. We tried again in the car, and failing again, he decided to get a shovel and see what he could do. Ah-ha! Success! It took a bit of time, but we made it out of the hotel grounds and on to the highway. No ploughs had yet been through, and as the sun began to show itself, we drove veeeery slowly and carefully to Dad's. The views out to the water at his place belied the storm from earlier that day.



Poor Dad. He got a taste of Mum's disappointment and frustration, I'm sorry to say. We spent only the last hour of daylight at his place. He didn't have power, and we wanted daylight for the treacherous drive home. A short visit later, and we were en route back to the Rock Water, arriving in time to see some interesting skies at sunset.




But no power. No, not for a few hours. By dinner time there were six of us gathered in chairs around a small gas fire in the dining room, drinking wine and enjoying box lunches given to us by the hotel staff. Conrad and I had spent time in our room planning New Zealand travel by candlelight, but we were happier to have ventured out and met others. Once again we found that circumstances were far from ideal but the reality of our situation was, in fact, delightful.

The power did come on, well before bed time. We bid our good nights and headed back to the room. Warmth, the soaker tub again, more travel planning, and a good night of sleep.

The roads were mostly fine this morning, though a few slick bits. We got in a last short visit with Dad (though he and Bella will be down in Vancouver on New Year's Day), headed for a coffee in Sechelt, then caught an afternoon ferry southward again.

We noticed, as we ate dinner at the condo here, that light snow was blowing down once again...