Road Rage

I am so angry at someone. We were planning on a lovely long weekend family vacation to Chch. Charlotte was looking forward to the petting zoo and i was looking forward to shopping (of course). Being we had the nasty cold snap and we wanted to go the inland route, i meticulously checked every source i could think of to make sure the road was okay. Nothing mentioned on the news or anywhere i could find on the internet (AA road service and metservice). The only one that even mentioned Lewis Pass was the metservice and it said 'No snow warning'. Sweet, off we went at 7am. Kids and car packed up. Two hours later we arrived in Murchison to see a big sign flashing "Hanmer Junction - chains essential". Grrr. Okay, we had some morning tea checked around Murchison to find that noone there sells chains, but we were able to get the phone number for the garage at Springs Junction. Yep we sell chains $110. So off we went. An hour later arrived at Springs (snow starting to fall to Charlotte's delight) to be told 'oh woops, we've sold out of your size chains'. Grrrrrr! The only option being at that point to go home. A huge number of other people we met on our travels had also meticulously checked the road reports, so we weren't the only ones caught out (One poor women we met in Murch had come all the way from Golden Bay), so who please is in charge of the road report for Lewis Pass and why did they not put up warnings on the news or net till two days two late for poor people like us? (It was on the news Sat morning that the road was closed.).
We couldn't even slip thru St Arnaud to Blenheim and down the coastal way as that too was closed and i'll be darned if i was going to drive back thru Nelson and down the coast with two small kids. From now on we only go south in the summer!!!