The following report is from Ryan Hellyer.

Thanks to a tip-off from Dave Richards who mentioned earlier in the week that his dog walked across a small firepond on Flagstaff, just a few minutes drive from the Dunedin city center, I headed over that way to see if the ice was now thick enough for a human to stand/skate on.

After parking in the Pineapple track carpark (aka “The Bullring”), a quick 10 min walk up the snow-laden hill revealed an excellent view across the Tairei plains and a terrific little pond sheletered from the wind. The pond was totally covered in ice, but on closer inspection I discovered that the sunny side of the pond had only a few millimetres of ice. The shaded side had some much thicker ice (up to 15 mm) but was far too soft to attempt standing on it. Plus, the edges were extremely thin and without the aid of a plank I would have landed in the water. I’m not sure how deep the pond is, but it definitely drops rapidly from the edges. The edges on the side in the shadows is also irritatingly steep and with little foot holding, so testing the ice strength by putting a foot on it is dodgy at best! I ended up sliding down on my butt and kicking the ice with my foot to see if it would break, which it did.

The firepond on Flagstaff in Dunedin. Saddle Hill and the Tairei plains can be seen in the background. Photo courtesy of Ryan Hellyer. Taken July 13th 2011.

Ice thickness on Flagstaff. Photo courtesy of Ryan Hellyer. Taken July 13th 2011.

Just as I was leaving, I discovered a small inlet on the other side of the road, which appeared to feed the main pond. The edges of this pond were locked in, unlike it’s larger companion across the road. I managed to stand on it for about 4 seconds before putting a foot through. When I alerted Dave Patchett to this via text message, it appeared that he thought I at least got my skates onto the ice, so I trundled back, put my skates on and tried it again. This time I managed to stand for a cool 10 seconds before attempting to glide across the ice … I made it about 30 cm before landing in water up to my knees.

Very small inlet which feeds the firepond on Flagstaff. Photo courtesy of Ryan Hellyer. Taken July 13th 2011.

So I technically did skate on Flagstaff, but it was on a stupidly small chunk of ice across the road from the main pond and I fell through as soon as I tried to actually move. A few good frosts should fix that though. Dunedin wasn’t even particularly frosty this morning, so it shouldn’t take much before the ponds are ready for proper skating.

The following report is from Ryan Hellyer.

Dave Patchett and I decided to attempt an early morning skate before work. We travelled to the Swampy Summit track which leads off of state highway 1 at the top of the hill between Waitati and Dunedin city. We left the bottom of the track at 6am. The track up is in very good condition, but the winter conditions have left a very slippery surface in some places lower down. As we got further up, the snow become fluffier and less slippery to walk on. Eventually we popped out onto a ridge where we found some promising looking puddles, including one which we decided we would actually skate on if all other attempts to find ice failed.

We ran out of time to inspect the large main ponds in the swamp itself, but  we did reach the smaller pond close to the side of the access road. The pond was watery at one end, but frozen at the other. The edges at the frozen end were very thin and we needed to use a plank to get out onto the ice surface. The surface itself was a little bumpy due to the recent snow dump, but consisted of around 40 mm of soft snow ice. We had a very brief skate before having to head down the hill again. Since the pond is fairly small, the lack of locked in edges was problematic as it was important to avoid getting too close to the shoreline as excessive amounts of water began creeping onto the ice surface.

Ryan Hellyer drilling the ice. Photo courtesy of Dave Patchett.

Ryan Hellyer on the ice. Photo courtesy of Dave Patchett.

Ryan Hellyer skating on Swampy Summit. Photo courtesy of Dave Patchett.

All in all, this was a very productive trip. There was little sign of frost around Dunedin at the time and so a few good stiff frosts should theoretically strengthen the ice to a point where it should be reasonably good to skate on.

View of Dunedin City taken during the descent back to the car park.

View towards Waitati. Photo courtesy of Dave Patchett. Taken during the descent from Swampy Summit back to the car park.

The latest reports from “Chip of the ice block” indicate that the ice on the Lower Manorburn dam is holding up well. Fingers crossed we get some more good frosts during the week to leave us with a nice ice pack for some weekend skating!

• http://chipofftheiceblock.blogspot.com/2011/07/by-light-of.html
• http://chipofftheiceblock.blogspot.com/2011/07/bubble-time.html

Good ice conditions. Arrived at around 2pm to find 55 mm of reasonably good ice in the gorge. Ice in channel was of similar quality. Locked in at edges. The ice was warming up as we approached the middle basin so didn’t skate in that far, but we assume it would have been okay in the morning. Looks very promising for a good skate tomorrow morning for anybody attempting it.

Bloody awful. Almost all the ice is gone. Good for swimming if you don’t mind it being a little chilly 🙂

Measured approximately 40 mm of soft snow ice. Dave Patchett crawled out to test the ice but had to return to shore as severe cracking was occurring and significant amounts of water was pouring onto the ice as the shoreline ice caved in. Could be skateable tomorrow morning if there is a good frost overnight.

Water near edges but consistent 55 mm thick snow ice  from shore. Surface was a little rough but a good skate none the less.

The Idaburn dam was in a very poor state on Saturday morning. There were significant tracts of water in the main basin area and some skims of snow ice. Sadly, no chance of skating and not looking promising without some significant frosts. There was very little snow on the surrounding hillsides to help cool the area for further ice formation.

The ice at Hoffmans dam was comparable to that at Coalpit dam on Saturday. Approximately 10 mm of snow ice was present.  The ice had very little structural strength and will require a few good hard frosts before it will be skateable.