Sutton Salt Lake — Attraction in Otago

A beautiful loop walk around Sutton Salt Lake, 3.5 km on the flat, takes about an hour. stunning landscape of distinctive schist tors and rock pillars. Sutton Salt Lake is New Zealand’s only inland salt lake. It has no outlet, so the lake has concentrated the salts from surrounding soils. Formed over the last 3 million years, the ‘Rock and Pillars’ are a series of folds (steep ranges rolling onwards like an ocean swell), the result of deep local faulting. Some blocks of schist rock remain long after the surrounding rock has eroded away. These ‘tors’ are a feature of the bleak and windswept ridges. Freeze and thaw cycles make it difficult for plants to grow and have left wave-like ridge patterns in the soil. A lens-shaped cloud formation, known locally as the ‘Taieri Pet’, is seen regularly during north-west winds. A highly unusual cloud formation that is found in very few places around the world. The Rock and Pillars have a very flat top with steep slopes on either side, and they lie perpendicular to the prevailing westerly winds. When these “fohn” winds are forced up and over the range it can create a dramatic cloud formation that the locals call “The Taieri Pet.” Meteorologists call it a “lenticular billow cloud.” It can be a single lens-shaped cloud or it can be shaped like a huge stack of pancakes with clear air between the cloud layers. It may seem stationary, but the wind is circulating rapidly...

Off the beaten track.. BUT .... go find it. It's not a hard walk. Take refreshments, for when you get there, cause you'll want to stay a while and sup up the peacefulness. Remember though, take your...

Get away from it all and take a steady easy walk up to and around the salt lake..on a good day take some great photos with reflections off the lake…worth a visit...