The Secret Scenic Road

This morning I had fine weather again, so I decided to take one lass pass through the area I shot late yesterday afternoon and see wha the morning light looked like. I went back to the the turnoff to the unmarked “picnic site”. It’s a paved road that runs along the east side of the lake. The first thing you notice is a sign informing that 11km ahead the road to the Pukaki Canal is closed to all vehicles and only open to bicycles and pedestrians. I figured that as long as it got me 11km closer to the mountains, that would be fine with me. It turns out that the road along the lake isn’t the one that they were talking about, its a side road that is closed to vehicles. The road that I wanted goes all the way up into the National Park! About halfway up, it does turn into gravel, but still a very good road. The best thing is that since it is on the East side of Lake Pukaki, it has a far better view of the lake and mountains that the main park road on the West side. Over on the main road, there are only a couple places that you can see Mount Cook with the lake in the foreground. On my secret scenic road, you have dozens of great viewpoints. And absolutely no one else!. I only saw one car in three hours. I’m not sure why this road isn’t in any of the travel guides, it is the best kept secret on the South Island.

I had really nice weather for about 3 hours, but you could see the high clouds starting to move into the area. I had plenty of time to get all the shots that I wanted and by the time I made my way back out, the good weather was turning not so good. The only problem I had was the wind. It intensified as the morning went on until it was blowing so hard I almost couldn’t get my doors open a couple times. I did a couple flights with the DJI Inspire. The first spot was before the wind picked up too much. The second spot was about the time the wind started getting serious. I had found a small clearing in a forested area and my plan was to fly straight up to reveal the range of mountains and the lake. All went well until I got above the tops of the trees that were sheltering me from some of the wind. When I got up there, it started pushing the Quad back away from the clearing and I had to use full throttle forward to keep myself over the clearing. It was exciting for a few moments, but I managed to get a couple good passes. After that, the wind picked up so much that flying just was not an option.

I drove down to Oamaru un the coast to spend the night and am camped next to the harbor. Blue Penguins come ashore here at night, but it is doubtful that I will be able to get any photos because they come up after dark. Today is probably my last shooting day. It’s supposed to rain most of the day tomorrow, so I will just concentrate on getting everything packed up since I fly to Australia the next day. If this is the last shooting that I get to do in New Zealand, I ended on a high note.


A view from my “Secret Scenic Road”


A bit further on down the road. Interesting high altitude clouds coming in.


I also had nice views of Mount Cook without the lake in the foreground.


In some places, I could get right down to the lake shore. You can see whitecaps from the fierce wind.


Here’s a panorama of the whole national park.


You can see the clouds starting to boil over the lower peaks from the West.


Another panorama of the whole range.


Why not “! Chevy” or “!Toyota”? I could understand “!Ferrari”.


The harbor at Oamaru where I am camping. You can see tomorrow’s rainclouds starting to move in.