Lake Tekapo road trip

Anna, Harry and myself road-tripped from Dunedin to Alexandra to do a night skate on the Manorburn dam, then headed to Poolburn reservoir the next morning to skate on mega thick ice at Poolburn reservoir, then finished our journey by travelling through to Lake Tekapo for a hockey tournament between the Killer Keas (our team) and the Christchurch Rangers.

Harry on Poolburn reservoir

Harry and Anna at Lake Tekapo

Harry and Anna on Poolburn reservoir

Anna, Harry and Dave during a night skate on the Manorburn dam

Anna and Harry on Mt John, Lake Tekapo in the background

Anna and Harry heading towards the dam face at Poolburn reservoir

Anna during a stopover at Lawrence

Anna on Poolburn reservoir

Anna, Ryan Hellyer (me) and Harry. Unfortunately the flash didn't work too well with my reflectors.

Ryan Hellyer (me) and Anna struggling to keep our eyes open due the glare on Mt John. Lake Tekapo in the background.

Keas invade Poolburn

The Killer Keas hockey team took to the ice at Poolburn reservoir to brush up their skating skills before heading north to Lake Tekapo. Skating conditions were a little average due to the snow, but there was no shortage of ice (up to 15 cm thick in some parts) and lots of fun to be had enjoying the scenery.

The Killer Keas squad heading towards the face of Poolburn dam. Download high resolution version.

Lunch break

Dave Patchett measuring the depth of the water on Poolburn reservoir

Ed and Pip

The two Daves, David Patchett and David Richards

Killer Keas goal tender Peter Wallis

Panorama showing how massive Poolburn reservoir really is. Download high resolution version.

Ben Wallis

Manorburn dam

View of the water fall at the lower basin of the Manorburn dam

Dave Young drilling down to 6 cm at the beginning of the channel between the middle and lower basins at the Manorburn dam

From left: Dave Young, Dave Patchett and Alan Knowles on the middle basin of the Manorburn dam

Dave Patchett playing hockey on the middle basin of the Manorburn dam

Dave Patchett posing with his home-made ice poking device

View of the middle basin of the Manorburn dam showing the moon still shining in the top right hand corner.

View of the middle basin of the Manorburn dam from upper channel.

Poolburn reservoir

Some photos showing the beauty of the frozen Poolburn reservoir this winter.

Alan Knowles and Dave Patchett skating through the maze of jagged rocks on Poolburn reservoir.

View of the rocks at Poolburn reservoir. This photo is result of merging three different photos to create a wider angle view.

A light snow dusting on the rocks created a stunning backdrop for the ultra-smooth near-black ice

Wide panorama showing how beautiful Poolburn reservoir is on a good day. Full resolution Panorama available here. If you look closely you will see Dave Patchett and Alan Knowles skating.

Skating Poolburn

Thanks to Dave Young, Alan Knowles and Dave Patchett for taking me along on their ice skating trip to Central Otago. We had beautiful ice, up to 10 cm thick, at Poolburn Dam. We circumnavigated the entire lake (~20 km), most of which was beautifully smooth near-black ice. There are a lot more photos to come, but here’s a few quick snapshots from the weekends activities until I find the time to process the rest of them.

Here you can see the "crazy squares" effect in the ice. The rocks you can see in the background are common throughout the lake and make for a terrific view across the huge expanse of ice.

There were a lot of Canadian Geese in the area. Their droppings are somewhat of a hazard on the ice as not only are they large and gross, but they ice tends to melt wherever they land.

Dave Patchett striding across the ice after we made a quick jaunt over to the dam face around lunch time.

For more information about the trip, check out Dave Young’s blog post.