Exploring new places to skate...

On an ice mound....

Today Dave and I headed to the Upper Taieri area to see if we could find any new places to skate.
We started of with an early pond skate on the hills before Paerau then went on down to explore around Styx.  Most places were not suitable for skating but we did skate in a couple of frozen areas then headed over the hills to the nearby dam.
 At the lake inlet we found a bit of skating on big plates of ice the had formed as the water level had dropped.  Great fun.  We then headed to the head of the dam and explored about maybe a third of the dam that was skate able.  Ice was hard compacted snow ice with frost on top.  Great to explore somewhere new. We enjoyed the new scenery and skating up and down the sloping ice plates.
A brief stop to skate the tail end of Mathias - frost on the ice but super smooth.
Next stop was Idaburn for a quick skate - good to see people out enjoying the winter conditions.  We finished of at Poolburn.  A lot of snow on the ice but you could skate some spots in hockey skates.  Nordic skies did not seem to work very well.     A big day out which Dave decided to top off by staying up there to camp for the night.

Starting with a dawn skate...

Enough light to skate....

Wetlands skating

Large ice plates

Dave under 'Extreme Danger"

Around the edge of the dam

Dave on Mathais

Idaburn getting good use 

Frost patterns at Poolburn

Ice Report:

Idaburn -  has good skating in the main area.  Some rough some smooth.  Was 'managed' today by some locals.

Poolburn -  Fresh snow on top makes heavy skating.  Some rough ice under the snow.  Track in has some snow but drivable.