Manager Kaye Aspinall wondered if perhaps they had got there while her husband, Willie, was watering the garden.
A neighbour down the valley chimed in that she had heard large rain drops falling on her roof at 3am.
And the Otago Daily Times noted at 9.27am a few spits of rain falling near the small mountain village near Haast Pass.
But wherever the water in the rain gauge came from - all 1mm of it - it signalled the end of Makarora's 29-day run of dry weather.
In a town that got 3.1m of rain one year and could safely be regarded as Otago's wettest town, almost a month without rain is regarded by locals as extraordinary.
A former owner of the ranch, Crawford Pennycook, now of Alexandra, kept the official rainfall records for Makarora for 37 years from 1961.
He could not recall a drier spell.
And neither could Mrs Aspinall, who continues to keep the records for the Otago Regional Council. In September last year, she pointed out, 110mm fell in one day and it rained continuously for six days.
Despite the Makarora and Wilkin Rivers being too low for jet-boating, and despite some of the town's 70 permanent residents having to water their gardens, no-one at Makarora was complaining yesterday.
They could see the ''Makarora mist'' building over Haast Pass, signalling more rain was on the way.
And the good thing about that is, it will help the warm soils of the valley produce a bonanza of grass in time for next month's lambing season.
