Jodi Brown
Former Silver Fern Twizel ( MacKenzie Country) Life as a semi- professional netballer has taken me all around New Zealand, and I have been lucky enough to experience many parts of our beautiful country. Apart from Wanganui, where I grew up and lived until I was 16 and moved away to play netball, Dunedin is where I have spent the longest.
Lake Ruataniwha Camping ground in Twizel has been my husband’s and my summer camping holiday destination for the past 10 years and automatically became my favourite spot in New Zealand. Planning our camping trip, packing up the cars, boats, trailers and caravans and the anticipation of the road trip is so exciting that we start planning next year’s trip the moment we leave.
Most people in this part of the world migrate towards Wanaka and Queenstown for their holidays, leaving only a few of us to enjoy this beautiful spot.
Even the three- hour journey from Dunedin is magical, as we leave the city and head into the country. There’s the annual stop in Kurow for an ice cream and a play at the park ( since we had kids). The view of lake after lake and the mountain ranges i s simply spectacular.
On the long straight from Omarama to Twizel the excitement builds as we pass paddock after paddock of grass, often with irrigation systems at work, before reaching the salmon farm.
From that point we are officially in our “happy place” for the next three or four weeks. For our first few years here we camped in a small group which was mostly family. This has expanded into a great group of about seven families who we camp with. We are blessed with access to wonderful places and scenery around the Mackenzie Country. We can choose between three lakes to swim and do water sports in and walk or bike around. On our doorstep we have Lake Ruataniwha, the smallest of the lakes and probably the busiest, being used for all sorts of activities — not just rowing competitions and racing but also a lot of water sports with boats and jet skis. There is also a calm Main picture / katyia75@ xtra. co. nz lagoon where people can swim, kayak and play freely without competition from big powerboats.
I love how the lakes look so inviting each day and am often mesmerised by their colour — bright, bright, blue. It’s mostly calm, although some days the wind arrives Jodi Brown waterskiing on Lake Ruataniwha. to muck up our plans. Being on the border of Central Otago we often experience high temperatures that send everyone into the water to cool off.
Just down the road, going south you have Lake Ohau with Lake Benmore to the east — both bigger than Lake Ruataniwha. Lake Ohau is the coldest and Lake Benmore the warmest. But both are very popular for boating activities and often you need to use a boat to find a quiet private spot to enjoy yourself.
Of course, if you want a change from the lakes there are scenic walks and on a clear sunny day there i s nothing more spectacular than seeing Mt Cook rising high above everything else with its snow glowing in the distance. There are wonderful and various mountain tracks suitable for all levels, small ponds for fishing, a river which is often sheltered from the wind and safe for children to swim in and a beautiful township.
When telling people about our summer destination I really can’t do it justice. The mix of the bright natural colours; the clean fresh air that makes you feel alive; the cold nights and foggy mornings that turn into scorching hot days; the freedom our kids get to experience in the outdoors, new friends and happy places and the memories that we all make — it’s hard to contain them in two pages of a book.
I fell in love with this part of New Zealand from the moment I experienced it for the first time and since then have never considered being anywhere else for our summer holidays.