Lake Opuha, Mackenzie District

Alongside creating videos of our adventures, this new travel life has also re-invigorated my joy for picking up my camera just for myself.

Recently we ventured in to Lake Opuha in the Mackenzie District with the van. This small lake is dammed for irrigation and incredibly low at present, just far enough off the beaten track to be a fairly quiet spot to park up and camp for the night.

There are 3 freedom camping spots around this lake and we chose the farthest area around the lake which proved to be much nicer and quieter than the first one we visited - we ended up getting the whole place to ourselves for the night (if you don't count the hundreds of Canadian Geese across the other side of the lake from us)!

I loved photographing the landscape around us as the sun set over a snowcapped Mount Dobson. This mountain range is probably more commonly photographed from the Lake Tekapo side, as Lake Opuha sits east of Tekapo and north of Fairlie. It has it's own ski field too.

The next day on our way back out east we stopped in at Opuha Dam and did the walking track which follows the lake around to the boat ramp and first freedom camping spot (the one we by-passed as it was mainly all sloping and had a lot of muddy donuts & skids from 4wd'ers marking up the grassy areas). You'll have to watch our YouTube episode to see the walk and the dam though, but here's a few of my favourite photos from our night at Lake Opuha.

​The lake itself and the dam lookout is well worth checking out if you're travelling in the Mackenzie District and want to get off the highway!

Have you been to Lake Opuha? I imagine it's a great lake for boating in Summer, although perhaps it gets too low??