Rhime Frost - 20 September 2020

Photographers all around the world know this moment. The moment when you round a corner, crest a hill or in this case run down the road when you hear your mate call "come see this". That moment when the rest of the world sleeps, and nature shows her beauty to the few that make the effort. That moment you just stop and stare, take in the experience and then try to capture it in a way that can pass on the moment to others. It's one of the privileges of enjoying photography.

In this case, I noticed in the weather forecast on windy.com, that patches of the lower central north Island was due to have fog on Sunday. That caught my attention. On closer inspection I could see that the Whanganui river valleys would be the best chance. As I scrolled through the timeline I saw a hint of blue in the fog forecast. Windy uses a blue colour when Rime is forecast... Rime is not common around here so now I was keen. A few messages to people and soon there was five of us making plans.

Wait, what's Rime you ask.....Rime ice forms when supercooled water liquid droplets freeze onto surfaces. In this case the water in the ice cold fog being blown down the river valley from the central plateau.

So up at 4:40 am, driving by 5:10 am, 6:15 am meet up in Whanganui. As the light of early dawn invaded the night sky, and the rest of the world slept, signs of fog began to appear. But no hints of what was to come. It wasn't till we started up the river road that we entered the fog. As the light levels raised, Les saw it first. The ice began coating everything, and when the light hit it was amazing. If you look at the tree in the upper right you can see the white ice coating the trees. What an amazing scene. The small weeds on the sides of the roads, our tripods and even our woolly hats had ice form on them. It was a sight that will stick with me for a while. Thanks Kelly, Les, Louise and Karl for sharing this adventure. Oh and thanks Les for being in the final image


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