Lake Wanaka ~ winter’s evening

From the bicycle seat this evening ~ Lake Wanaka, Black Peak on the left, Fog Peak in front of the sun…

Wanaka evening

This first good snowfall for the winter

A typical NZ scene – happy sheep that have just been fed and they’re quite oblivious in their thick wool coats to the heavy snowfalls on the mountains.

St Bathans Range in the background
St Bathans Range in the background

The nearby Cardrona Valley and a weather change

We’ve just had many days of settled weather in Wanaka and in winter this equates to either an inversion cloud base hanging over the town [where the temperatures actually are higher as one ascends – proved by going up to a ski area], or the skies stay clear and we have wicked frosts…
Hawea River frost and sunrise

And it’s when the weather is on the cusp of change that other possible scenarios present themselves as landscape photography opportunities. In this case it’s warmed up as cloud with accompanying wind comes in from the north west.

For this image, just a 20 min drive up the Cardrona Valley was all it took to capitalise on the change photographically speaking…
Mt Cardronai