Misty Benmore

Matariki

Superb day - best yet!  

Up before sunrise at 7am which I decided to welcome in at Ohau C/Lake Benmore.  Cold but not frosty.  No stars to be seen which was a shame for those wanting to welcome in Matariki.  Just a 10-minute drive or so and I was lakeside looking at a nice-but-not-spectacular sunrise. Silence!  Amazing quietness - just a few early birds and the sound of my van heater keeping things cosy.  Post sunrise things began to look interesting as a mist/fog rolled in across the water.....wow!  That kept me entertained for quite some time.  After a while I thought I'd pop back to the van and enjoy my second coffee.  I thought it was about 10am.  Turned out it was almost 12.30pm!

Post-coffee thought I'd head to Twizel - I literally got 50m along the road when I noticed the swallows were plentiful and close-ish to shore.  Thought a quick half hour of swallow shooting would be ok.  Headed back to van to find it was now 3.30pm!  My hit-rate has rocketed with a few tweaks to my settings and I was very excited to get quite a few decent pics.  They're still too far away though - I need to find some that are along the narrow part of the canal rather than at the outlet end which splays out to well over 100m wide.  

Twizel duties attended to then decision time - Lake Poaka or back to my usual canal-side location.  Visited Poaka but decided to return to my usual site - I recognised when a hesitancy in me about Poaka which I have learned to listen to.

All in all, despite there being no sign of a hoar frost, it's been an absolutely fabulous day.