Magnificent Views from Treble Cone Skifield- Wanaka

Catch-up

While David went fishing, I went exploring. There had been a good dump of snow on the surrounding mountains overnight and with a clear blue sky I decided to visit the Treble Cone skifield which wasn't too far from Glendhu Bay, off the Mt Aspiring road. The skifield is located up near the top of the right 'cone' in the photo below.

On the way I stopped off at a lookout overlooking Lake Wanaka's Emerald Bluffs...

...and Paddock Bay (where David was 'Out There' fishing)

I knew the carparks would be busy; from our campsite at Glendhu Bay Motor Camp we saw a continuous stream of cars, campers and motorhomes making their way to the ski field every morning. And then returning in the late afternoon on their way back to Wanaka. Shuttle buses transferred skiers from the bottom carpark to the top of the mountain although many drove the 7kms to the top.

Holy moly, when I first arrived I thought I'd arrived at a Jucy van rental yard!

I caught the shuttle to the top, with fresh snow it was advised to carry chains and we don't have any. Plus I wanted to take photos out the window as we climbed.

Matukituki River & Valley

There was still room for late morning arrivals at the top. Treble Cone is the largest South Island ski field at 550ha (1359 acres), it also has the longest vertical rise of 700 metres and it's longest run is 4kms. Not that I needed to know all this as I had no intentions of skiing (I gave that up a very long time ago). I'm just happy to take photos and enjoy the view.

The precarious park up of shuttle buses after the morning run. I arrived on one of the last shuttles and there's a two hour wait before the return shuttles start running.

Skiers decked out in the latest gear jostle for the chairlift...

...the beginners slopes are up behind them.

I was hoping to take the 'Six Seater Express' chairlift to the top and back but unfortunately...

...the wind had picked up (blowing snow off the ridges) and it was only open to skiers. 

No worries, this is was what I'd come for! The breathtaking view out over Lake Wanaka and the surrounding mountains. Click on the photo to enlarge. You can see the mountain access road on the right, top and bottom of the tussock covered slopes.

Dead centre is Rocky Mountain & Diamond Lake, there are a few walks over this area which also have some magnificent views. The lake is hidden in the towering rocks on the right handside of the mountain, click this link to see autumn photos of the tiny lake from a previous visit.  The (in)famous Roys Peak is at the back on the right, Glendhu Bay directly below and at the far back you can just see part of Wanaka town. To the left in the valley you can see the Matukituki River and in the middle of Lake Wanaka, Mou Tapu Island.

But for me, the best sight of all was seeing my loved Hawkdun Range, complete with a mantle of snow, at the very back. I had no idea that I'd be able to see the range way over there in Central Otago.

To the left I can also see Mt Alta, the mountain that dominates Lake Wanaka from the southern end of the lake; it's seen from the town and overlooks us at Glendhu Bay.

Here's a zoomed in panoramic shot of the fabulous view- 

And here's one of Glendhu Bay (on the right) and Paddock Bay tucked in front of that hill which is attached to a spit of land. I can even see a spot of white on the water at the entrance to the bay, possibly David fishing in the boat.

I'd brought my lunch with me which was just as well as the queues inside were horrendous. I located myself a table and just as I sat down I spotted a familiar looking bird striding about underneath the tables looking for tasty titbits.

I forgot my lunch for a moment and walked around the back of buildings to where I'd see another bird fly in from. Around the back of the kitchen I found half a dozen Kea (our cheeky endemic mountain parrot) helping themselves to whatever they could find. One was on top of a large plastic container looking into the centre of it. It looked like the container was holding waste cooking oil and while it had a very tiny opening, the Kea was eating the oil flavoured ice from around the bung hole. 

Another three birds were on top of a rubbish truck peering over the side at me, they were only there because someone has chased them away from below the truck where they too were eating food flavoured ice or trying to pull pieces off the rear of the truck.

Up on the bank behind the buildings, only one of the group is doing what Kea should be doing; digging in the snow and pulling out tasty shoots.

By the time I head back to the tables to have lunch, the crowd has thinned out...

 ...and once I've finished eating, I wander up to the carpark above the Base carpark...

...to take a few more before heading back to the shuttle pickup point. I want to catch the first shuttle back down and already a queue is forming. 

I take one last panoramic photo from Treble Cone before I climb into the bus and we rattle off down the mountainside. Some of the drops over the edges are pretty scary as I peer over the side on the hairpin corners. I'm sure some of the drivers we meet coming up the road have a bit of a panic when they meet us coming down at a fairly fast pace. 

A Return to Wanaka

Back to catching up on the last of the blogs from a few weeks ago-

After a lovely few days at Ohau B Canal near Twizel it was time to move on. I thoroughly enjoyed Ohau and I’m looking forward to returning sometime in the summer to explore the area further, and perhaps David will also have better luck with the salmon next time.

The landscape heading up the Ahuriri River valley towards the Wether Range and Lindis Pass was stunning. You’ll recall we’d had the first snow fall of the season while parked at Ohau (not the more recent ‘Big Snow’), the remnants of that first fall looking like a dusting of icing sugar across the tops.

This first photo(below) is approaching Lindis Pass Summit and looks totally different to the second photo which was taken on my recent trip back to the MacKenzie Basin to see the snow.

Although, this second photo is heading down from the summit- you can see the back of the summit sign on the right, further down the road.

I was looking for an area for David to pull into so I could take some scenery photos before we left the Lindis Valley behind us but unfortunately the one I directed him into turned out to be one big muddy mess. David was not impressed. And nor was I when I couldn’t find any decent shots to take and my shoes were covered in mud.

We headed back to our favourite Wanaka camping ground, The Outlet, for a few days. The campground is beside Clutha River's outlet from Lake Wanaka, hence the name. You can compare the autumn photos from our last visit in the link above.

The road to the camp ground is part of the lake and river reserve and the campground is set back up side roads in amongst the maunka to the left. I don’t think the weather must have been too great on our last visit as I don’t recall seeing Mt Aspiring across the lake ahead of us. It must have had it's head in amongst the clouds for most of the time.

We set up camp on a slightly elevated site with views out to the river and lake, the level plateau we parked on last time had been roped off due to the recent rain but we were quite happy with this spot as there were just a few permanents at this end of the camp, the overnighters were sited closer to the entrance. It was nice to sit in the slide out with the warm sun streaming through the windows all day. The trade off was the front door opening into the cold shade. Oh well, you win some, you lose some.

Wanaka town was looking pretty as a picture in the winter sunshine.

Looking across the Wanaka Marina to Roys Peak Conservation Area. I became very familiar with the marina during this trip, I wonder if you can guess why?

Another shot for me of the famous Wanaka lone willow. I had good intentions of getting up early and shooting it at sunrise but it was just too darn cold and I was just too darn lazy. It’ll keep.

We took a drive out towards Mt Aspiring National Park stopping just before Glendhu Bay to take a photo of Mt Aspiring, the most prominent feature in all the views as we wound our way around the lake. It looked pretty impressive towering above the surrounding mountains especially as it was still a long way up the Matukituki Valley to the mountain itself.

We stopped to watch a group of army guys climbing the rocks at Hospital Flat, an acclaimed rock climbing area near Diamond Lake. Hospital Flat was not named because it hospitalised climbers, it was where farmers & drovers left ailing stock to convalesce before they were moved further up the valley.

We stopped at the Diamond Lake carpark for lunch, we came here last time in the early autumn and the colours from the poplars and willows along the river were stunning. Now it’s a more muted tone. I can see the road to the Treble Cone Ski Field in the top right of this photo, the skifield wasn’t open but it couldn’t have been too far away as it snowed a couple of times while we were in Wanaka.

After lunch we drove back towards Wanaka turning off just past Hospital Flat and taking a side road up the west side of Lake Wanaka towards West Wanaka Station where there are a couple of long DOC walks in the Mt Alta Conservation area. We had no intention of hiking them today, we were just tiki-touring and keeping warm inside the ute.

We crossed the temperamental Matukituki River, a river than can be little more than a trickle in the summer that becomes a raging torrent in the winter and spring with the snow melt from the mountains and the many glaciers in the Mt Aspiring National Park. It looks like it took out the bridge at some stage which has now been replaced with a suspension bridge.

We drove through the front paddocks of West Wanaka Station to the end of the track. We always feel a little anxious driving through farms, it feels like we’re trespassing even though they are public access roads.

We stopped at Homestead Bay to have a look around and found these Kereru (native wood pigeons) resting and sunning themselves in a willow tree beside the track. They kept a weary eye on us but were too lazy to move, even when we walked up underneath them.

A vehicle track lead out to the lake’s edge and the braided river mouth of the Matukituki; there’s actually an island that separates some of the braids, that’s how wide the mouth is.

Finished with West Wanaka we headed back towards town and took another side road opposite Glendhu Bay that headed up the Motatapu Valley for about 8kms, ending at a small wooden non-descript bridge and another large high country station. But there was nothing non-descript about what was beneath the bridge or in fact who used to own Motatapu Station. The station once belonged to Shania Twain, the Canadian singer and songwriter. She sold it after her marriage broke up but I'm not too sure who owns it now. Whoever it is they like their privacy too, there are plenty of signs around saying 'Private' or 'No Entry'.

And beneath that bridge lies the Motutapu Gorge, a very narrow and deep chasm that the Motutapu River flows through. It was dark and uninviting on our visit but apparently there’s a very popular swimming hole located in the gorge and reached by following the river upstream from a nearby carpark.

Popular but very dangerous as the ice-melt fed river rushes through the gorge between boulders and over waterfalls. Three years ago a 15 year old boy lost his life in the gorge when his foot became stuck between rocks and he fall over a waterfall backwards. He was submerged and breathing in an air pocket before finally being rescued and flown to hospital over 3 hours later. Sadly hypothermia and the stress of the ordeal caught up with him and he died during the night.

On the way back down the valley David took the opportunity of driving through a fast flowing ford a few times to try and clean some of the mud and cattle poop off the ute. Secretly, I think he just wanted to hoon it for a minute or two.

Diamond Lake

While in Wanaka waiting for Warbirds (along with many others) we took an afternoon drive through town & followed the road around the lake front past Roys Peak, which we decided looked far too steep to climb.

And on around to beautiful Glendhu Bay which looked magnificent with all the autumn colours and the still calm waters & peaceful beach. There’s a large camping ground which takes up most of the bay and we decided that this would be a great place to come and stay for a week or so in the summer. There’s easy access to the lake to launch the inflatable unlike where we were parked at the Outlet Holiday Park on the other side of the lake. From the bay there’s also great views up the Matukituki Valley to Mt Aspiring and the mountains that surround it although on this day the cloud kept the summit hidden.

A crowded Wanaka lakefront- the day before Easter

Glendhu Bay looking east towards Roys Peak, Wanaka town is on the other side of this range.

The road carries on past Glendhu Bay and on into the Mt Aspiring National Park up the Matukituki Valley. We wanted to check out the DOC free camping site at Diamond Lake which in fact turned out to be not much more than the carpark for the walks in that area. It was quite a large area and you could park on the tussock rather than the gravel park and the surroundings were pretty impressive but still, it would have been nice to have a more dedicated area.

We recognised the motorhome that was parked up; we had seen them at Athol & we were to see them again at Warbirds. We met them later on the walk to Diamond Lake and they said there’d been 10 or so campers in the park the night before.

The landscape around the the Diamond Lake conservation area has been carved by Ice Age glaciers and contains many bluffs & rocky outcrops. For LOTR fans this area was also used as the “Rugged Country of Rivendell” in the film. Neither of us felt very energetic so we decided we’d walk up to Diamond Lake and maybe do the longer walks to the top of the range on another trip. With so many visitors in town for Easter Weekend & Warbirds there was a steady stream of people walking the track.

It’s a fairly easy walk up to Diamond Lake although it does climb steadily for about 15 minutes until you reach a small plateau where the lake is situated. The views down and across the valley are stunning, the Matukituki River, lined with willows & poplars in their autumn colours, winds its way past on its way to Lake Wanaka. Across and up the valley are deer farms, the roar is in full swing and now I can hear a much more impressive sound than the early season strangled squawks I heard back in Manapouri. These stags mean business!  

Diamond Lake is very small but its certainly a pretty lake from ground level, willows and rushes surround the shoreline and you can follow the track right around the outside and back down to the carpark. Apparently this lake was once a very popular ice skating venue, I suppose it would be perfect because of its size and the fact that it would freeze over very quickly in winter.

Half way around, the track branches off to a number of other walks that take the walker higher up the bluff and on up to Rocky Mountain Summit, a 3 hour/7km return walk. We decided to walk up to the viewing platform above the lake. This part is very steep and there are many steps but it was well worth the effort.

The surrounding landscape was once again breath-taking, and huge! We climbed a little further up the bluff to an area that gave us 270 degree views out over the farmland below to Lake Wanaka, Roys Peak & Glendhu Bay beyond.

 

You often don’t get an indication of the sheer size of the view in landscape photography especially if you haven’t got anything in the shot to give it scale. David picked up through his binoculars, a helicopter resting on the top of the ridge across the valley. The passengers were walking along the ridge obviously taking in the views, we watched it lift off later and fly up the valley towards Mt Aspiring & it’s glaciers.

It is in the photo on the left (click it to enlarge), its just to the right, at the base of the middle cutting down the range behind, you may still not see the helicopter because of the low resolution photos I have to upload to the blog. I zoomed in on it so you could see I wasn’t telling porkies!

The view really was amazing and we spent quite a bit of time just soaking it in. From a photographer’s point of view, the lighting was fabulous although it would have helped if I had changed to my landscape lens (the shot would have been a lot wider) before leaving the car! I’ll have to save that for next time too.

Once back at the car we continued on up the valley stopping at the bottom of the Treble Cone access road. Treble Cone is one of the top South Island ski resorts in winter and we could see the dozens of tight switchbacks as the road weaved it way high up the mountain side to the ski field. It was getting late in the afternoon and the road closed at 4pm (although I’m not sure who would check on that) so we decided to leave a visit to the top for another time.

We also decided not to drive up the very long (approx 34kms) winding gravel road to Mt Aspiring too. We had heard that the road was badly corrugated & dusty as there’s been no decent rain in the area for a long while so that will wait for another time too.

We turned around and headed for home, stopping a few more times (my long suffering husband is mostly very patient) to take in the colours and unusual landscape, although looking at the photo below I see that this one was taken out the window!