On reflection...

I met Inge at Poolburn this morning to get one more skate before the weather changed.  Was treated to a fabulous sunrise on the way up.  Much warmer than the previous days and the light breeze had already made the ice wet making it smooth and hard.  We headed off around the main island to the far bay. The water level was so low that nothing looked familiar with new rock islands everywhere.  Heading back we used GPS to navigate back to the passage around the island.  Great skating with reflective views all around.

 

Clear sky - great ice

Up early this morning to meet Inge at Poolburn.  The ice had set in since Monday and we were treated to great skating.  We skated to the dam and around the back of the big island.  We had to turn back when the ice thinned out.  About 80mm in the main bay thinning out further away.  We were both surprised at the low water level and the height of the dam above the ice.  Hard to leave.   On the way back I had a skate at Idaburn but the ice was going off in the sun and the ice spiders were out!   Stopped in at Coalpit and found good ice.  Was able to skate over the whole dam.  What a treat!

Best is black

Warm temps today around Central this morning made it an optimistic call to look for ice.   Decided to check out Coalpit as it had the most promise on Saturday.  The ice was hard and dry but not quite thick enough so decided to head to Poolburn to have a look.  Despite being above zero there was still a bit of snow on the way up - a good sign.  Walked down to the the lake edge and was pleased to be able to skate on black ice - my favourite skating ice.  Was able to skate over a satisfying area but didn't venture too far as the ice varied and was creaky in a few places.  Fab skate.   Hopefully we will get a few more frosts....

Long wait....

It has been a long wait for cooler weather this year. Usually we head out early June to look for any sign of ice but this year it is the end of June.   After a cooler week with a bit of a southerly storm there was a hard frost in Central Otago so I decided to go for a look.  A bit of snow around the Ida Valley and -9 as I headed up to have a look at Poolburn.  Plenty of snow on the track but passable.  New thin ice over most of the lake but too thin to skate - still water in a few spots.  I managed to have a scratchy skate on wind stacked ice in a small corner of the bay. Used the Nordic skates first then the hockey skates.  Bit bumpy but great to be on ice again and had fun.  Water level is very low.  A couple of frosts could bring skate able ice.  Checked Idaburn and Coalpit. Both had ice that needed a few more frosts to give a skate.

Good to be out on a sunny winters day.

Black ice...

After a few hard frosts at home I decided to look locally for any ice.  Great to find a pond close to home that had new black ice thick enough for a safe skate.  The frost had built up smooth hard ice giving fab skating - a great way to finish off the season.

Last Ice

After a few big frosts I decided to take a detour today on the way to a job.  Checked out Poolburn but only new ice with water in a lot of places and too thin to skate.   There was a chunk of ice in Rushcutters with thin new ice else where.   Despite the debris on the ice I decided to skate and had fun once I worked out the best places to skate.   I think this will be it for the year.

Like a mirror...

 Decided to explore around Naseby today after a good frost (again!) after the good skating there on Wednesday. The new ice on the shaded side was fabulous - like skating on a mirror - smooth and reflective.  Half the dam was skate able with it thinning out on the sunny side.  Awesome skate and hard to drag myself away.  From there I went to Hoffmans Dam and skated on a large chunk of thick ice.  Then headed into the forest on my bike and skated the mining pond and another pond nearby.  The second pond had about 120-150mm of ice which I couldn't  hack through.  Finished of with a skate on a third pond.  On the way home I stopped of and had a skate at Daisy Bank on the small pond I spotted on the way up.  Great day exploring and skating all round.