Photo: The Mirror Lake

It was early spring and still bitterly cold. My fiancé and I were camping in the back of a 24 year old station wagon and woke up to the locks and doors of the car frozen shut. I could see the first rays of light hitting the top of Aoraki (Mt Cook) through the frozen windows but couldn’t get out! Free of the car, we raced to the viewing platform just in time for the breeze to die down and the reflections to be crystal clear. Lake Matheson, Westland Tai Poutini National Park, New Zealand.