Earthsea Gallery

The alpine area of Nelson Lakes National Park is another of our favourite tramping, camping and kayaking destinations. Glacial activity has gouged out two large, almost parallel troughs to form Lake Rotoiti and Lake Rotoroa. The spectacular mountains rising up from these lakes are the northern tip of the Southern Alps. Dense beech forest covers the mountainsides and a diverse alpine flora is abundant on the tops. We recently spent the night in our camper-van en route to Central Otago, at Kerr Bay, Lake Rotoiti. Pete wanted to photograph the sun rising over the St Arnaud Range. On a icy August morning we left our campsite under the beech trees at 5.30am and made our way to the Buller River outlet. It was bitterly cold so rugged up from head to toe we walked the frosted ground and icy stones, through stunted beech forest to the edge of Lake Rotoiti to see this early morning view. The St Arnaud Range was cloaked in a fresh fall of snow and beautifully reflected in the clear, still water of the lake.