Around the Ponds & Lakes- Mackenzie Country

Catch-up

It was a cold calm day at the canals when I decided to walk to the far end of Wairepo Arm to check out the reflections. I set off wrapped up warm, day pack on my back and wearing gumboots due to the soggy ground underfoot (aka Wellington boots for my overseas readers). I should have worn my tramping boots in hindsight but I thought I'd only be going for a short walk.

I followed the fisherman's track along the edge of the pond, I've walked it numerous times when I'm birding but I usually drive the 3kms to the far end when I'm looking for reflection photos because according to Murphy's Law, a breeze will kick in ruffling the smooth water just as I get there if I walk.

Today there's not enough overhead light to give clear reflections but the winter colours of the poplars & willows are nearly as stunning as the autumn colours. Because I'm walking I also disturb the waterfowl resting on the pond edge and they fly or motor off in alarm crashing through the water breaking up any reflections that are there.

I pass a stand of  alder samplings and try some creative blur shots with the bare trunks. This is done 'in camera' not with processing afterwards. To achieve creative blur in your photos slow the shutter speed down (this one is 1/50sec) and then as you push your shutter button, quickly move your camera up and down. Play with settings until you get the desired effect, it's fun to see what you can produce. I enjoy doing this with colourful flower beds too.

I cross over the main highway to Kelland Pond, another body of water with a lot of birdlife that feeds into Wairepo Arm and on to the canals. I'm thinking that it'll be frozen like it was on another visit and it is, but only just.

And funnily enough I find the same ice patterns as before. Ice is attached to the reeds a few inches above the water level. This happens when the demand for electricity increases and the power stations draw off more water; the pond level drops leaving these unusual frozen patterns.

I cross back over the road and as I reach the end of the Arm I can see that it's also starting to freeze over at a stream outlet. I decide to take a look along the dirt track that runs up the otherside of the pond.

It's dark and spooky in here and the swamp that's feeding the frozen stream is also mostly frozen.

I carry on along the track a little way and then decide to walk back to camp on this side of the pond.

I know from a past visit that there are a couple of calm little backwaters tucked into the trees on this side but in the end they too aren't providing me with any good reflections. 

Here's a photo from the previous visit-

By now I realise that wearing my gumboots was a bad idea; after 4kms my feet are starting to ache from slopping about inside with no support. I also know that it's about 6kms to get back to camp from this side as you have to drive/walk up to the power station to cross back over to the camp side of the canal. I put my camera away and press on up the track for another couple of kilometres and then call David up to come and rescue me. It's not long before I see the ute inching it's way around a far corner and then it appears in front of me. A welcome sight for my weary feet.

David stops opposite the camp so I can take a photo from this angle and then we take our time getting back up the track to the power station, it's heavily corrugated and not a nice experience, no wonder not too many vehicles fish on this side of the canal.

David wanted to check out the camp at Lake Benmore while we were at the canals. We've stayed here out of season before and although we had fog for 3 days solid we still enjoyed our time. This time though, it was quite depressing. I think because it is later in winter and very cold. 

David enjoys lake fishing from the dinghy much more than the canals so we decided we'd come back again in early summer when the weather is a little warmer. 

We drove down the road a little further and stopped high above the lake. The colour of the water and the stillness was breathtaking (or maybe that was the cold air).

Further on I spotted this lone willow on a point, of course I had to get a few shots of it...

...and then have a little play processing it later (it's called artistic license).

We hadn't stopped in Lake Tekapo on the way to the canals so while David was fishing I drove back up the road stopping along the way at all my favourite spots.

The beautiful turquoise waters of Lake Pukaki-

Irishman Creek Station's letterbox located on the main highway is a popular subject for passing tourists and photographers to photograph. I think I have a photo of it for every season now including another winter one where it's surrounded by snow.

A visit to Tekapo isn't complete without a short side trip down the Tekapo Canal to one of my favourite locations- Patterson Ponds.

Patterson Ponds are a series of small ponds surrounded by willows and birches which are located in the Tekapo River basin below the canal road and alongside the Tekapo River.

Once again I have photos of the ponds in every season, autumn is probably the most spectacular but in the winter the ponds are frozen and the ice a milky blue.

It is rumoured that large Brown Trout live in the ponds and while we've seen a few small trout swimming about we've never seen the big one.

Freedom camping is allowed beside the ponds and I notice that the road has possibly been graveled and graded (it's still about 2kms long though) and a toilet block installed at the beginning of the ponds, you can see it dead centre in the panoramic photo up above.

I didn't walk down to the ponds this time, just paused on the canal road above. This is looking back over the ponds towards Lake Tekapo with Two Thumb Range in the background.

Finished at the ponds I drove back up the canal road and down to Lake Tekapo where I lasted all of 2 minutes sitting on a bench seat, eating my lunch overlooking the lake. It was bitterly cold!

Next stop is the (in)famous Church of the Good Shepherd which, as is the norm, was swarming with tourists.

It's such a shame that there is now a fence and gates (locked overnight) surrounding the church, although I was pleased to see that the fence had been erected a good distance away from the church...

...so you can still get clean shots of the church if you wait patiently for a break in visitors!

Down below the church a forest of stone cairns (aka rock graffiti) are taking over the foreshore. I suppressed the urge to knock them off their pedestals.

The lake's turquoise blue is very intense in the quieter shallower bays on the east side of the lake.

I drove around to check on the NZMCA Park; one of the reasons we didn't stop here was it was closed for maintenance over winter. Many of the inner circle of large pine trees have been felled, this will open the space up and let in a lot more sunshine.

I stopped back in town to buy a coffee and noticed a lot of black suits and security guards walking around near the new $11 million Dark Sky Project building on the waterfront. The Governor General and Mana Whenua were due to open and bless the building.

They must have heard I was going to be in town, I was also here for the opening of the footbridge by Dame Jenny Shipley in 2015.

On the way home I stopped off at a view point overlooking the freedom camping area on a point that juts out into Lake Pukaki. There were already a few settled in for the night.

With no signs of fish or another hoar frost due anytime soon we decided to carry on south, stopping at the entrance to the Ahuriri Valley on our way. At the far end of the road is where we woke up to -16c and a hoar frost, it's where the photo was taken that's on back of the 5th-wheeler and this is the first time we've come back past since. We'll be coming back in the summer next time. 

Then it was up and over the Lindis Pass and into my favourite province of all, Central Otago (aka Central to locals and wannabe locals) 

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.