Winter in the Mackenzie- Part 1

 Real-time

There's something magical about winter in the high country. If you're hardy enough to see past the regular heavy frosts, cold temperatures and odd foggy day, you'll be rewarded with an ever changing view of a stunning landscape. From spectacular sunrises & sunsets to snow covered mountains, big blue skies, crisp sunny days, hoar frosts and magnificent cloud formations, every day is different. 

Sunset- Ben Ohau Range, Twizel

Not to mention the crystal clear night sky. The Mackenzie Basin is one of the best places in the world to view the amazing night sky and winter happens to be the best time to view the world above us. The galactic core of the Milky Way galaxy is visible from the months of February to October in the Southern hemisphere and during the mid-winter months of June and July, the core is at its brightest. If you're lucky you might also see Aurora Australis, aka the Southern Lights, which can sometimes be seen dancing on the southern horizon during the long clear nights of winter.

Fog surrounds Night Sky Cottages

Fog is a regular visitor during the early days of winter when the land is cooled overnight after the warmer days of late autumn & early winter. Fog bows appear as the sun rises and the fog rolls in. I've seen several on our usual travels but this winter I've been lucky enough to see three or four over our back fence. Because fog water droplets are very small, fogbows have very weak colours or no colour at all, this is when a fogbow appears white, they're sometimes called white rainbows.

Fogbows don't last long, they're gone as soon as the fog obliterates the sun & blue sky. 

When the fog clears this is the view we have from our back fence; Ben Ohau (on the right) and the Ohau Range at the rear. Lake Ohau is tucked in between the two.

I did say you need to be prepared for cold temperatures didn't I? We had several days of -11c frosts.

After finding the laundry frozen one morning I purposely hung more out the next night so I could take photos of the frost on the pegs.

And then after some of my Facebook followers told me of childhood memories of clothing snapping in half in heavy frosts, I tried it with a tea towel. It rolled up instead.

The frosts made interesting patterns on spent flower heads, leaves and other items around the garden, including plenty of cobwebs. That made it easy to see where they were to clean them off.

After chasing hoar frosts around the South Island for four of the last five winters, I had my own mini ones right in my back yard! Click the photo to enlarge.

As I've already mentioned, the sunrises and sunsets have been spectacular and so varied. 

Sunset Over Ben Ohau Range

I was setting my alarm to catch the sunrises for a few weeks during the middle of winter, every morning was so different and the colour was often gone within minutes as cloud rolled in or the sun rose higher. The infamous Canterbury Nor'wester provided some fabulous cloud formations (centre left) at sunset.

I held my breath waiting for the first snow to fall around the cottages. And when it arrived (June 6th) I was like a kid in a candy shop. It blew in from the south gently splattering on the window, building up  to a noisy crescendo and filling the window pane with icy crystals. 

It fell for a couple of hours and then by mid afternoon it had melted back into the landscape.

The next snow fall was on the first day of spring (September 1st), this time a little heavier.

Night Sky Cottages

But it too was gone by late afternoon. It's been a very mild winter in the high country this year, the surrounding mountains were looking a little barren until another recent spring dumping.

Snow settles around Kahu Cottage

At 720 meters above sea level, Lake Tekapo usually sees more snow than it's sister village Twizel (at 480m) and just 50kms down the road. When snow fell at lake level in mid June I took a quick drive over to Lake Tekapo to shoot some snow photos. 

The snow was fast disappearing but I managed to get some lovely photos-

'That' Church, sans people- Church of the Good Shepherd, Lake Tekapo

NZMCA Park, Lake Tekapo

And clockwise L to R- Lake Tekapo pedestrian bridge, my favourite Patterson Ponds & Two Thumb Range, the iconic Irishman Station letterbox, top end of Tekapo Canal, where very large fish are being caught and where next year this section of the canal will be closed for fishing during winter, families enjoying their hire motorhomes and fishing the Tekapo Canal and the last one, more from the Tekapo Canal.

I was delighted to come across this huge snow-kiwi while exploring, a clear path led me right to its location. The body had been rolled along through the snow, around a corner and down a slope, picking up everything in it's path including all the rabbit poo!

I love it how I'm now able to claim Lake Tekapo, Lake Pukaki and Aoraki/Mt Cook as being in my backyard.

Sunset over Lake Pukaki 
Aoraki Mt Cook is hidden under the dark cloud at the far end of the lake

I took the following two photos at either end of the same day; the moon sets behind Ben Ohau Range as the sun rises. The pink hue on the snow is known as alpenglow. Alpenglow is an atmospheric optical phenomenon which makes mountains appear to glow in a light pink or red hue. It occurs just after the sun sets or just before it rises.

Pukaki Canal & Ben Ohau Range

And at the other end of the day, the sun sets over Lake Ruataniwha (I'd been to Timaru and back in the hours between).

Lake Ruataniwha

It's not just snow & frosts during winter in the Mackenzie Basin, many days are sunny and settled. These big blue sky days are perfect for reflections on the many lakes and waterways around the high country. These ones from Lake Ruataniwha's 'Lagoon'- 

And this one from Kellands Pond-

Several times during the very cold frosts, the willow trees across the road that line the banks of the Fraser Stream were coated in frost icicles for most of the day. This localized hoar frost looked very pretty but with no blue sky it was hard to photograph.   

Although on one morning I had a hunch that the fog was about to clear so I headed off down the road towards the Pukaki Canal which is at the end of our road. As I neared Ben Ohau Station the fog started to swirl and lift and I was able to capture some of my favourite photos from this winter.  

Ben Ohau Station, Twizel

The station's merino sheep weren't too impressed with being interrupted from their silage breakfast though.

Ben Ohau Station's historic shed

The long grass and fences along both sides of the road were coated in ice; there's more build up when the moisture laden fog blows in over the open paddocks.

Loch Cameron is also at the end of our road, the trees on the little island were coated in frost.

I stopped to take some photos overlooking Fraser Stream from up on the canal road. I live by the motto of  'always taking the photo when I see the shot'. I never think to myself, I'll get that on my way back or after I've finished my lunch etc. Which is just as well.

I followed the canal road along towards Lake Ruataniwha and found a completely different world just 5 minutes down the road. Any fog that had been around had retreated and there were no signs of a hoar frost either. I turned around and headed back home passing Fraser Stream again, the hoar frost now completely gone from there too. 

Ben Ohau & the Ohau River

To be continued- My dream comes true; A Five Day Hoar Frost

Exciting Fork in the Road

Real-time (& a belated Happy New Year!)

Well, you may have wondered where I'd got to after my last post at the end of the year. There we were happily camping at Ohau C Camp beside Lake Benmore waiting for the warm weather to arrive and the crowds to leave when...

Ohau C camp, Lake Benmore

...nek minute (actually 21 days later) we're parked up beside Mum & Dads' house, 1000kms away in an unusually wet Napier, on our way to Tauranga.

Instead of spending summer relaxing, exploring, fishing and photographing some of our favourite and more remote South Island lakes; Mavora, Onslow & Poolburn, we'll be ensconced in a dark warehouse for a few weeks. It's time to sort through our furniture & gear which we've had in storage for the last 8 years. And the reason for the sudden need to do this?

Welcome to our new home town! Twizel, heart of Mackenzie Country and the great outdoors.

Mackenzie Country (aka the Mackenzie Basin or Mackenzie District, and yes, it is a small 'k') is in the high country of the South Island, at the foot of the Southern Alps and part of the South Canterbury region. The Mackenzie is close to my heart and one of my favourite areas in all of New Zealand. Which is just as well, as we have purchased a property not too far from Twizel's town centre.

Kelland Pond

And while I say 'home town' that's not quite right because we'll still do our wandering while we rent the property out for short term holiday accommodation.  And then when we need a break from the road we'll be able to put the sign up for a couple of weeks 'No Vacancy'.

Ben Ohau & Lake Ohau

There is so much to do in the Mackenzie District, it's a very busy and fast growing tourist area. The Alps 2 Ocean Cycle Trail passes by our front gate, there's trophy fishing in the canals and three lakes within close proximity and another 4 or 5 lakes within an hours drive.

There's day walks and tramping tracks, birding and boating. The Mackenzie is also an International Dark Sky Reserve which has great appeal to me; Lady Aurora will never be too far away. Of course I'm in seventh heaven with the photography opportunities; magnificent autumn colours, wild flowers (including those love 'em or hate 'em lupins), snow covered mountains, high country tussock landscapes, big blue skies and turquoise coloured canals and lakes. And dare I mention hoar frosts!

I can't believe that I can now say that Aoraki/Mt Cook is in my backyard, just 45 minutes away.

We'll be back in Twizel in early April to unpack the container and then we'll have a little bit of work to do on the property over winter and be ready to hit the road again late winter/early spring.

I will share more information on the property further down the track, in the meantime I am going to try and catch up on some blogs! (New Year's resolution that begins February 1st!).

Lake Ruataniwha

Along the Canals- Mackenzie Country

Catch-up 

Another hiccup has put me behind again- my computer crashed, well not quite crashed, it was hanging on by a thread and we felt it better to replace it and transfer all my files before it did decide to spit the dummy. And with a new laptop- a fabulous HP Omen- & no, I'm not a gamer- I needed heavy duty & a 17' screen- came a new inverter for the van to power it. Which in turn created a few issues of it's own. 

I'm now back up and running thanks to my wonderful computer savvy husband and I'm thrilled with my laptop. The high definition screen is superb, my photos are now crystal clear and even I am amazed at some of the photos! And the speed that I'm able to process photos is fantastic, no making a coffee now while I wait for a bulk lot to download. So anyway here's the next blog, we're still in Twizel.

Now that I had the hoar frost out of the way (until I find another one), I was able to focus a little more on some of the stunning sunrises, sunsets and winter landscapes of the Mackenzie Basin. This blog takes us along some of the canals, the next one will be around the lakes.

Sunset over High Country Salmon Farm, taken from the NZMCA Ohau B Canal camp.

Obviously there's a reason for all the man-made canals that criss-cross the Mackenzie Basin; they feed the hydro power stations which in turn provide much of New Zealand with electricity. And with power stations come the pylons, hundreds of them. So there's no choice but to make them a feature when taking photos around the Basin.

These next few photos were taken from the top of  the hill which I traipsed up and (slid) down in the freezing cold for several mornings in a row while we were parked at Ohau B. 

High Country Salmon Farm and Wairepo Arm, a large pond that is fed from the canal-

Always look behind you when taking sunrise photos, sometimes the colours are just as spectacular...

... and if you have 360 degree views there's a constantly changing colour and light show going on around you.

The sun rises over Lake Ruataniwha, with Ben Ohau (far left) and the Ben Ohau Range behind.

Twizel township sparkles as it wakes to another spectacular high country day. 

And you'll recall I mentioned attempting to do some car tail-light trail photos using the vehicles heading to the escaped salmon canal when my camera battery ran out. Here's another attempt a day or so later. There weren't enough vehicles in the end to give a good trail of red and you can see my shutter speed wasn't long enough because the lights come to an abrupt halt halfway down the canal! 

And here's three last photos from a very intense sunrise, I know it's going to be a good one when I look out in the early morning gloom and see that the clouds are thick and streaky overhead just before the sun pokes it's head over the horizon. 

There's those pylons again, this time looking like space rockets on a launch pad.

The colours start to leach out of the sky by the time I get back to the van but there's still some awesome colour over the top of the two buses parked behind us, and whose occupants are happily snoozing away tucked up in their warm beds, totally oblivious to nature's spectacle happening overhead. 

As the sun rises, the mist lifts from over the canal to reveal early bird fishermen on the other side of the canal. Camping is not allowed along the canals but a lot of people arrive at their favourite spots well before sunrise.

The sun rises over Ohau B Power Station and the early fishermen who passed by me while I was on top of the hill.

And once again from my vantage point above the power station I can clearly see Aoraki/Mt Cook across the Basin.

The curve of the canal below the power station is hot property, it's where most of the early fishermen head to, chasing those elusive escaped salmon.

On this morning I walked along the north side of the canal to the salmon farm, there were a few people fishing along this side too but only the hardy, as you have to walk to your spot and leave your creature comforts in your vehicle back at the gate. Non- salmon farm vehicles aren't allowed.

It's interesting watching the activity at the salmon farms, although usually they are only feeding the fish; throwing out scoops and scoops of pellets over the top of the large nets that contain the fish. But on this day they were netting the salmon and putting them into bins.

I thought they were harvesting them but it looked like they were weighting & measuring them and then putting them into another bin and then back into the main net again. I'm still not sure what they were doing; maybe milking them of roe? But look at the size of those fish, the poor fishermen nearby looked on in envy at the size of them.

Meanwhile over on the other side of the canal, fishermen were still catching the escaped salmon and discreetly as possible preparing them for their chilly-bins. Though nothing is discreet when you have me on the other side of the water! 

A lot of people park their motorhomes and caravans along the canals while they fish, it provides a place to keep warm, have a cuppa or lunch and for partners to relax in while the other half is fishing. 

David's heart wasn't into canal fishing on this visit and he hadn't been feeling too well- although he did fish from our canal and at Lake Ruataniwha a couple of times, though had no luck. I wanted him to at least give the escaped salmon a go, so he humoured me for all of an hour but still had no luck.

Although he did enjoy chatting to a few of the others about their catches or lack of.

I was looking forward to tucking into some salmon of our own but I did had a backup plan...

...buy some frames from the salmon farm shop! I've only ever bought salmon sashimi and fillets from the shop but they are expensive. Thanks to a tip from Colleen, a fellow motorhomer who we  caught up with in Fairlie you can buy five salmon frames for $10 (they actually gave me six frames).

I took the heads & tails off (you could make a lovely broth from them, I didn't bother this time) then halved each frame as they are huge! Then I simmered them in two batches for about 4-5 minutes each (if that), drained and cooled them and then pulled the flesh off which in fact just fell off the bones. I had enough for salmon potato cakes for dinner that night & a fish pie the next with still enough salmon to fill two medium sized freezer bags. A perfect solution if you don't catch any fish (although a little time consuming to prepare).

A canal that I don't mention often is the Pukaki Canal which runs along the bottom of Ben Ohau Range; it is in fact the one that is most visible to the many visitors passing through MacKenzie Country. The canal exits Lake Pukaki near the lookout to Aoraki/Mt Cook and passes under the highway further down the road. 

From there it flows along the bottom of the range, with a canal road on both sides; one sealed and one gravel. Lake Poaka and a basic DOC camp are off the gravel road; a long, steep rocky descent off the canal wall at one end and a shorter version at the other end. 

Towards the end, another canal which exits Lake Ohau  joins Pukaki Canal and they both flow into Ohau A Power Station which is above Lake Ruataniwha.

There's a large river terrace alongside the power station which overlooks the water flow from Ohau A and also the smaller Ohau River which has a bypass at the Lake Ohau dam wall. 

Both flow into Lake Ruataniwha and on past our camp down to Lake Benmore.

 At the eastern end of Lake Ruataniwha and a short walk from our camp is the Ohau River spillway (look at that colour, that's MacKenzie Country colour right there!)

And the historic Old Iron Bridge which looks a little drab surrounded by a monotone of dry grasses and bare trees.

Unlike the time I shot it surrounded by snow back in June 2015.

The pond did have some unusual reflections but I was too lazy to walk down to see them. 

Back at camp, it seems that this is the story of our life at the moment; on our own at many of the NZMCA camp sites. Just as we like it....most of the time.