The big one (heavy rain)

We saw the rain gauges. We saw the rain, the wind. We knew it was safer out east of the alps than west. The river that we watched the quick flood last week, the 12 hr, 1 in 125 yr flood... is now 4 times the size of that flood. But that's not the story of the day, no, not even close. We've been jonesing for a trip west to get back to a few rivers. Our friend Mitch left today to get himself set up for the coming, final 2 1/2 weeks of his trip. Here's the note he sent us when he got to the west coast:
"I'm in Greymouth. Everything along the way was pumping mud, and fields covered with water. Flood signs on the road, and one way traffic. The main road to Greymouth was closed due to the Grey pushing so much water, and I had to go around via xxxxx Road. All those creeks - much of the same story. The xxxxxxxx looked unrecognizable to me. Some of the rain and creeks have washed out some of that road as well. It also rained most of the way here. Hopefully that is some help!"
Here's perhaps the amazing river flow chart of them all. It's not finished rising yet even, not for another 8 hrs after the chart was updated. So, when you watch dvds like The Source: New Zealand, Trout Bums, etc... realize that they aren't telling the whole story of ff in NZ. It's amazing, but you have to come prepared and have a plan ahead of time where or if you will fish when 650 mm of rain (26") hits in 24 hrs. But, we'll be happily fishing tomorrow. That's the point. Anyway, for all the mention of big rain, big water the past 2 weeks, last night's rain dwarfed them all. The rivers are 3 to 5 times the size of the worst we've seen this year, coming close to the worst we've seen in 4 or 5 trips here. Awesome to see!