Our little spot on the northern point of Lake Ohau quickly became one of our favourite locations. Our initial thoughts were to stay for up to a week, depending on the resident sandfly population, but the location is so magical we stayed for three weeks.
Sandflies were certainly a challenge, however, plenty of decent insect repellant and learning to do jobs around the van at night when they are not out made life a lot easier! We parked up around 20 meters from the shoreline looking south and only a few nights in realised we could see aurora activity with the naked eye. Put the camera to work and got some beautiful imagery reflected in the lake surface.
Stunning scenery to go walking in and we certainly did plenty with a few stops becoming our regular excursions. The amazing thing about the area was that even though we repeated a number of our walking routes through the three weeks the weather was so changeable that it would change the atmosphere of each visit....simply magical location.
Road out from Lake Ohau back to Twizel after a night of light snow.
One of the many trees in the forest next to the Lake. If the forest didn't feel Jurassic enough then this one certainly helped looking like a dinosaur foot!
I spent a wonderful few hours along the southern edge of the lake as the sun was setting. Spectacular display by mother nature.
The last light of the day just snuck through and lit up the side of this mountain in the distance making a 'fire bowl'.
An early start for a walk in Tekapo had us going past the lake before sunrise.....stunning.
This was the view not far from the van for three weeks.....bliss.
There were a few occasions during our visit I was lucky enough to witness the aurora.....not bad to have this only a few meters from your home!
A great memory shot of our favourite picnic spot overlooking the lake. On a clear day we could also see Mt Cook from here.