Lake Rotoiti Stars

Cruisey morning - packed van - headed south to Lake Rotoiti in search of space, peace and quiet.

On a long weekend?!?! Was I dreaming?!

Beautiful drive - hardly any traffic on the road, blue skies all around. It struck me during the drive that some pics of the Milky Way might be on the cards with the amazing clear skies)

Arrived at St Arnaud (the Lake's village) and dropped in to the DoC centre to get info on walks. Discovered the campground I was intending staying at in West Bay was closed for winter ("But winter doesn't start until tomorrow...?!) The DoC Ranger promised not to give me grief if he found me in the campervan on the 'NO CAMPING' lake foreshore in the middle of the night after I explained I would probably be out taking pics.

Down to the lakeside for a cuppa. I hadn't even turned the engine off when someone in the car in front of me waved......

Turned out it was a friend and a colleague with 2 other friends - 4 ladies who were having a girls weekend away. (They were waiting on a call from the chap who they'd booked their bach through......he'd double booked it and was ringing round trying to find them another one so they'd just popped down to the lakeside to wait a while.)

Anyway - the ladies disappeared, the afternoon disappeared, the sun disappeared, the cold descended and, as the sky grew darker, the milky way began to appear......

I had no idea which direction it would fall in and was hoping it would be north-south over the lake . . . . .it was east-west and much more overhead than I imagined so the shot I had thought of (this one) didn't actually get the milky way! Still, I thought a silhouetted Mt Robert with a few stars and a bit of a shimmer on the lake was still a nice option. Maybe I'll do the milky way tomorrow night?

And beautiful though the milky way and starry sky is, it means it's going to be a cold night tonight.....good job I have 2 duvets and a hottie!

G'night.