A rare skate near home!

A good frost this morning had me up and checking the closest skating spot to home - just 20km away. A good sized pond in a shadow of a hill.  Fabulous ice about 7cm thick.  Great skate!

 

Just enough....

Dave and I headed to Poolburn this morning to see if the freeze had iced up the lake.  About 30mm of new ice over some of the lake.  We had a look around and managed to get a scratchy skate in the corner of the main bay and a better skate and the end of the far bay. Black ice, hard and smooth but talking all the time so we didn't go too far.  Great fun skate.  Good to catch up with Inge as well - on a fabulous blue sky winter day.

Snow ice!

After the storm I decided to take the bike and have a look around Naseby as the temps have been quite low.   After a bit of excellent  forest riding in the snow I had a skate in two places on snow ice.  Ice was good considering the weather but not very strong. Not my favourite ice but great to skate again.

Meet up

A good frost in Central this morning got me up early and to Poolburn again.  Ice had changed a bit since Sunday - a lot more water with an edge melt.  Had to go around the main bay to get on.  Once on the ice it was good out to the main island, the dam and the far bay.    Great to meet up and skate with Clive and his crew from Canterbury.  Good fun and good company.   Went home via the other side of Ida Valley and had a skate in a new pond.  Couldn't  resist a short skate on Idaburn as I passed through.

One more for Poolburn

Decided to give Poolburn one more try early this morning and was surprised to find the ice had settled in since last Friday.  Not a heavy frost but enough to set the ice and lock it in around the main bay and further out.  Plenty of water showing around the back of the island but good ice if you were careful.   Great to meet and skate with Inge again - although missed her dog Stone galloping around.  We had a great skate around the island, down to the far bay and the dam.  Too much water to go anywhere near the long arm.  Fab skating on hard ice.  Used the long skates for quite a bit which was fun.  Warm weather coming so not expecting the ice to last.   Track rough but mostly dry.

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Big Skate

Up early to Poolburn this morning to meet Inge and make a most of the ice.   Bit of frost overnight has set the ice up well.  We had a good long skate out and around the main island and around to the dam.  I particularly enjoyed watching the colours change as the sun came up.  Had a quick skate on Idaburn main bay on the way home.  Ice was pretty good there despite being later in the day.

Fog and Sunshine...

Up early this morning to skate at the Lower Manorburn.  Foggy weather and around zero degrees left the ice a bit weak.  Surface was hard but bumpy - good skating with the long skates.  Found a bit of weak ice and managed to get a bit wet!  Decided to check out Poolburn before heading off.  Surprised to find sunshine and good ice in the main bay - though I was a bit late and it did start to creak (in the sun).  Skated around the small island and out to the big island. Great skating on crazy pave ice.   Not sure what will happen but if there is a good frost tomorrow it may be skate able again.  Light wind and warmer when I left.  Track is a bit rough.

Don't forget these....