But now the family are worried they could be away from it all for too long and not get back in time for work.
Ryan and Rachael Inch along with their daughter Amelia (11 months), from Christchurch, arrived in Kinloch about 6.30pm last Friday, along with another family, staying at Mrs Inch’s grandmother’s crib behind Kinloch Lodge.
Within a few hours, the rain poured down and the only access road to the area was washed out.
Now the two families are surrounded by water in all directions at the top of Lake Wakatipu and there is next to no chance at the moment of driving out by road.
She admitted there could be worse places to be than Kinloch but it was basically impossible to get around.
"We brought our friends down here to show them around to all these nice places like the Routeburn, Paradise, over to Glenorchy," she said.
"But now we are stuck here. We can go down to Greenstone but we can’t take the dogs down there as they can’t go in there. You can see a lot but you can’t go anywhere. So we are stuck here.
"Luckily we brought plenty of supplies, as you do, plenty of nappies and food."
The families have two youngsters with them — an 11-month-old baby and an 18-month-old — and they were doing well.
The rain was very heavy on Saturday night, she said.
"I have been coming here all my life and to me it looks like the way the old Kinloch looked. Plenty of water all round it."
The frustration of being stuck centred on the lack of communication about what was happening with no contact from the Queenstown Lakes District Council.
"No-one has rung us. No-one has been in touch.
‘We are just reading stuff on the websites.
"I would have thought with the way the forecast was, with the amount of rain that was going to come, there might have been an orange rain warning.
"Then we might have stayed for a night in Queenstown and waited it out."
She said the families could go out by boat but did not want to leave their vehicles behind.
They needed to get back to work by November 18.
The council said in an update yesterday it was looking at constructing a temporary road through private property, allowing vehicles to bypass the washout.
The council was trying to establish a confirmed timeframe for the temporary road to be completed and should have an update this morning.
A council spokesman said it had been communicating with people located beyond the road closure both directly and via the owners of Kinloch Wilderness Retreat.
"Given the location of the washout, it was not easy to make contact with every individual or group at the start but since then we have been updating our website and Facebook page, and responding directly to Facebook comments, messages and phone calls.
"It has also been challenging gaining a detailed awareness of each individual’s or group’s situation and what, if any, specific advice they needed from council.
"This has been made more complex by people leaving — and continuing to arrive in — Kinloch under their own steam and via different methods."
The council had been clear from the start there was no easy or quick fix to reinstate access out of remote locations.
