Fall foliage report Mackenzie Country New Zealand
Written on Sunday, 11 April 2010 by NZTravelInsider
A brief fall foliage report on how the autumn season is unfolding in Mackenzie Country and South Canterbury in New Zealand.
Up until now, every day I’ve been here in Mackenzie Country I’ve experienced freezing cold temperatures at night.
I’ve had early starts at 7 a.m. just after sunrise and the temperatures then were always between -1 and 1 degree Celsius.
Mount Cook has been looking gorgeous every day from sunrise to sunset; not a single cloud around it.
I was even able to see Mount Cook all the way from a lookout point on the Peninsula Circuit walk at Lake Benmore on the second day I was here.
The weather has been great since I arrived. Today was the only day on which high clouds set in and then slowly thickened, but not before I had a wonderful walk at Lake Tekapo. I’ll report on the day walks at both Lake Benmore and Lake Tekapo in the near future.
The good news is that the sunny days and dry cold nights have been good for the autumn colors.
The poplars around Lake Tekapo are currently displaying a 60% autumn leaf color change. The other trees in and around Lake Tekapo are still largely green with some displaying a 10-20% autumn leaf color change.
Trees in the yards of people living at Lake Tekapo are displaying a 70-80% autumn leaf color change as you can see in the picture below.
The trees around Lake Benmore are already almost at their peak. Trees in the Ahuriri Valley are pretty much still green like the ones at Lake Tekapo. Poplars and trees around Lake Ruataniwha are displaying a 70-80% autumn leaf color change. Other areas in Mackenzie Country still need more days before they hit peak autumn color.
I expect peak foliage color to arrive between 14 and 16 April in Mackenzie Country, and then you should be able to enjoy good autumn colors probably up until 21 – 23 April.
Tomorrow I’m heading to Central Otago, so will give you the lowdown on the autumn colors there.
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2 Responses to “Fall foliage report Mackenzie Country New Zealand”
Posted Tuesday, 13 April 2010
I am starting to get worried, my trip starts at 24thApril, we will get to Lake Tekapo at the afternoon of 24th, hope hope hope we can still see the autumn colors there…….
Xin
Posted Tuesday, 13 April 2010
I think you should be fine for Lake Tekapo. The trees seem to be changing slowly there. I just hope it does not get very windy, because high winds tend to blow all of the leaves off the trees.