The Road to Ohau

Much has been written about the grandeur and the power of New Zealand's South Island landscapes, about the jagged peaks of the Southern Alps, the parched, dry expanses of the MacKenzie Basin, the big skies and the power of Central Otago and beyond.

I was born in the North Island but I've been living in the South Island for the last twenty years. I've seen almost every part of it but I still never tire of all those majestic qualities that have made the South Island famous. Recently, I discovered a small wedge of the south I had never visited before - the very pretty, glacier-fed Lake Ohau, located south-west of Twizel. You turn off the main highway just south of Twizel and travel inland for around 17km and then suddenly, as you rise over the brow of a hill, there's Lake Ohau, spread out like a turquoise jewel in the middle of that rust-brown landscape.

Probably more famous for its small ski field in the hills behind than for any sort of 'town,' Ohau is a ridiculously quiet spot - a new development that sits on a rise above Lake Ohau and, just across the road, the much smaller, darker, Lake Middleton. The fir and pine-edged settlement is made up of a growing number of holiday homes. I'm sure there are permanent residents there as well but in my two days there, I never saw another living soul. If it hadn't been for the roads and the telephone wires, I could easily have imagined I was the last person left in the world. Lake Ohau itself (60sqkm), is popular with trout fisherman I believe, but like all of the south's glacier lakes, it's freezing cold and not nearly as tempting to swim in as you might think.

Looks Can Be Deceiving

Lake Forsyth, Banks Peninsular. July 2008. Ajr

When you stand on the edge of Lake Forsyth – known to Maori as Wairewa – it’s hard not to feel a little sad about this poisoned place. A few days ago it looked moody and enticing, pretty almost; but this is not a lake you want to swim or fish in. Thanks to a wide range of contributing culprits - from erosion and bird fouling to human effluent - the lake suffers from algal contamination. Its water is poisoned, fish are dying, it is silting up and boating on the lake is virtually non-existent. Once a valuable food resource for Maori – especially eels – it is predicted it will become a swamp within five years if the problem can’t be solved.

A Turquoise Jewel

Lake Tekapo. Central South Island. 2007. Ajr

Summer or winter the Lake Tekapo area is a photographer’s paradise. The lake itself sits like a turquoise jewel in the middle of the barren, brown, tussock-covered landscape of the McKenzie Country and in winter, huge, heavy skies loom overhead. It can be bone-chillingly cold but so, so dramatic and always worth a stop. www.tekapotourism.co.nz

Did You Know........

..... that New Zealand has 3,820 lakes with a surface area larger than one hectare? Or that Lake Taupo is the largest freshwater lake in Australasia? or that Lake Hauroko in Southland is our deepest lake at 462 metres?