Water water everywhere

So, here's a photo of what the lake level normally looks like at this time of year (although normally there's a bit less snow!)

And so this morning we thought we'd take another photo for comparison... unfortunately the Queenstown Photography club also thought that was a great idea so we didn't exactly get the clean shot we were after (the lake's risen another 200 mm since then and is still rising).

Since this time last week, the lake has risen by 1.3 metres. The lake is pretty big, so the amount of water needed to lift the level that much is over 350 BILLION litres. Which is pretty cool.

Sorry but I've had to delete the last photo as it's now been sold to the local papers. Will try and get some more shots tomorrow.

Winter's here... but where's the snow?

We got up this morning to discover that the promised storm was indeed on it's way in. There were waterspouts forming in the lake and it was getting progressively darker down towards Glenorchy. Less than an hour later, we looked out to see that half the lake had been swallowed up by the grey murkiness. In a week's time last year, Greg was hiking up Ben Lomond with our friend Max in a snow storm and in 2 weeks time we were snowboarding on Coronet Peak. The hills are VERY bare at the moment so it better hurry up and get cold soon. It's currently 14 degrees outside (at 7pm) which is way too warm for this time of year. It's also raining heavily and we've even had thunder and lightning.

And in contrast to the revolting weather today, here's a photo taken in Wanaka last week when we were on our way to hear Andrea's friend's band play. This shot is looking north-west from the main Wanaka waterfront (towards Rob Roy Glacier and in the general direction of Treble Cone).

Postcard Photos

We took the boat out yesterday for a spot of fishing and for a picnic lunch over on a little beach near Walter Peak Station (near where the Earnslaw cruise goes to). It was a perfect day for boating - warm sun, blue skies with just a few fluffy white clouds and hardly a breath of wind. Once the morning frost cleared we reached a high of about 17 degrees so very pleasant.

And here are our postcard photos:

The Earnslaw chugging towards Walter Peak Station

Cecil Peak at dusk - these cloud formations made for a pretty sunset but we were busy unloading the boat so didn't get any photos.

More of the cloud formations with Walter Peak to the left of the shot

The clouds over Ben Lomond

The Earnslaw heading back out again (just below Sunshine Bay)

And last but not least, the golf course and the Remarkables. There will hopefully be snow on them again by the end of the week!