Then it’s off to St Arnaud where we’ll be leaving with 2 cars to go down the Rainbow Road and look at – and maintain – some landout sites

Like here, this is a landout site (for those not in the know: a potential place to land a glider if unable to make it back to the airfield) and we cut down some of the shrubbery to prevent a ground loop if we’d ever land here. Details of this landout site: L744 “Hamilton”, description: “Land between the two power lines. Level. Some scrub. Not an active strip – SOS only”

We continue south and then get to the start of the actual Rainbow Road, a ‘private’ road that is being used as an ordinary money grab by the owners, $60 to drive your car through here. It used to be $40 but in recent years and – I assume – to keep up with the inflation (of say 5%) they have increased the price by 50%. Nuts!

Even Rainbow Station honey is 50% more expensive than for example West Coast honey

The next landout site we stop and have a look at, just to the right of the road here

It’s L627 “Rainbow”, description: “Just W of road & river. High tension lines. 3% uphill to S”

We continue our trip, still lots of low clouds in the valley

Lovely views, this is looking back in the direction we came from

Nice spot for some camping

The next landout we visit is in this lovely area

A locked gate, never much fun for a retrieve crew

The actual strip: L754 “Tarndale”, description “S side of river, just E of farm buildings”

This is also where we have some lunch, from left to right: Annett, Alonzo, Claus, Frank, Chris and Jill

My lunch: more pancakes

We continue, and what a beautiful day it has become!

An isolated map

Mooooooh, our next landout site is right here

L758 “Isolation Flat”, description “4km SW of Wards Pass, 1km W of fork in river. Parallel to and on NW side of road. High tension lines on other side of road. Super bin at NE end”

It’s a lot to take in

And we’re at the next one: L756 “Red Gate”, description “3/4km NE of fork in river. Shed at NW end”, plenty of space, you just hope that if you’d ever had to land here the cows would not be in the middle of the strip

But nice to see them enjoy the beautiful scenery

The next one is one the other side of the the Clarence River, you’d arrive from the left (in the photo) and land towards the super bin

But before we get to the actual strip we stop and have a look at the Acheron Accomodation House

The entrance to the next landout strip

L748 “Acheron House”, description: “1km SW of river junction, on S side of river near bridge & buildings”

Looking ENE, similar to previous photo but further up the strip

At the far end of the previous photo, looking back WSW, should be ok to land a glider here

We are on our way back following the Tophouse Road, this is looking back towards Hanmer Springs, awesome to see what a difference some mountains make

Last landout strip for today, key will be to avoid the power lines!

L751 “Clarence Top”, description: “20km S of L Tennyson. On W side of river, E of road and high tension lines. Super bin at N end”

We have another break at Lake Tennyson

Lots of people enjoying the lovely weather here

Lake Tennyson

Jill, Chris, Alonzo, Frank, Annett, Claus

On our way back we see a car that had an accident a while (months by the looks of it) ago, nothing left inside of value, except – surprisingly – for 2 cans of food that are still ok to use, I save the cans

“Can’t park here mate”. Hahaha, LOL. Look it up on youtube if you feel like a laugh

Bye bye Rainbow Road

Very last landout strip for the day: L709 “Bulls Pad”, description “S side of main road, immediately E of T junction. Super burn at W end. Undulating, so stay on strip”

The Nelson Lakes airstrip

Flying up a bit with one of the Nelson Lakes club members in his DG

Over at the Raglan Range looking towards the Wairau River and St Arnaud Range

Looking east

Raglan Range

Interesting sky today

Over at Angelus Hut

Travers Range

Mahanga Range and Lake Rotoroa

Mt Franklin

Lake Rotoroa

Lake Angelus

Mt Hopeless

Mt Cupola

Lake Constance and Blue Lake (closest)

West Bay and Kerr Bay

Looking south

What a wild sky!

XL coming in for landing

Cloudbase if not very high today

I’m staying rather local today, lots of green around here

There’s a convergence to the west, I decide to follow it

It’s working

I always love flying in convergence because the clouds can be so wild

I mean, that looks cool right?

Glad I took my camera with me

I turn around

And fly along the convergence again

I wouldn’t be surprised if we get rain later on

Over Lake Rotoiti again, by the waves on the water you can tell the wind direction, which helps you predict where there will be lift

Once again the end of Lake Rotoiti with the Coldwater Hut

I have landed, the sky is looking ominous. Joe is still flying

And there he is

And he safely lands

Afterwards we all enjoy a lovely dinner in St Arnaud where one of the members has a house

Lake Rotoiti, cloudbase is slowly rising

At Mt Robert, cloudbase needs to rise!

On the east side of the St Arnaud Range, way below ridge height again

Flying back towards the car park hoping to catch another thermal

Coldwater Hut and the end of the lake, I walked around this lake a while ago

Flying west to have a look over there

Lake Rotoroa again

I forgot the name of this mountain, I think they used to launch hang gliders from it

Flying north towards Mt Owen

Looking west

Owen Valley

Mt Owen

It’s a very special looking mountain

At least I have not seen one like this before

Lake Rotoroa in the far distance

Lake Constance

Some small lake on the Franklin Ridge

East of Lake Rotoiti

Lake Rotoroa, today’s flight really is all over the place

Back at Nelson Lakes Gliding Club with their G103

Overhead Lake Rotoroa

It’s busy here at the moment

A G103 getting ready for a winch launch

And there it goes

The winch, some 1 km further west

After having done a short check flight I did my first winch in RY and start exploring the area, here we see Mt Robert

This is the Nelson Lakes airstrip seen from above

Nelson Lakes’ LS4 CX, a little bit of Lake Rotoroa just underneath it

Mt Robert with the Relax Shelter

It took a while but eventually I managed to fly further up the Robert Ridge and made it to Lake Angelus

With the Angelus Hut, which I have yet to visit

Bristol Pass

West Bay and Kerr Bay (closest) of Lake Rotoiti

Lake Rotoiti

Lake Rotoroa

Once again West Bay and Kerr Bay

At the very end of the lake is Coldwater Hut, which I visited before

Robert Ridge again

Lots of small lakes

Flying south along the St Arnaud Range

And north again, Lake Rotoroa on the left

After flying Joe and I have some dinner at the ‘clubhouse’ (can’t think of a better description) on the airfield

The end of yet another great day of gliding