Clay Cliffs and Ice Crystals

1st June 2018

Mix the right sort of clay with cobbles, site them where streams and rain will erode it in a geologically short period, sprinkle them with minerals to tint the cake and you get the Clay Cliffs in Omarama, New Zealand.

Even a two mile an hour wind will prevent the hoar frost from forming but if the air is still the crystals grow and if those conditions last for a few days the crystals lengthen. The longest, at over 10mm, were in Ohau on a slope which never sees the sun.

At its lowest it was eight degrees below zero, wind-still with a low mist. A photographer’s dream.

Nature aims to gift us wonders.

Vincent van Walt, Wanaka, May 2018

Click on an image to expand the gallery:

[Modula id=”12″] (Omarama and Ohau)

[Modula id=”13″] (St Bathans and Naseby)

[Modula id=”14″] (Wishbone Falls, Matukituki Valley)

[Modula id=”15″] (Poolburn and St Ophir Bridge)