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FEATUREDRIVING INTO SUNSHINEBY DEREK GRZELEWSKIAT THE SOUTHERNLAKES, the change ofseason from autumnto winter heralds thearrival of the dreaded inversionlayer, a low cloud that oppresses thelandscape like a slab of concrete.The phenomenon is caused bythe winter air above being muchcolder than the lake waters, whichstill radiate their stored summerheat, and it usually lasts for a fewweeks. After the exuberance andgolden fire of autumn, this gloomseems to sap all joy out of the land,turning it into a grey void, coldand uninviting.The savvy locals usually taketheir winter escapes to the PacificIslands at this time – you wouldn’twant to escape winter proper, oneof the Lakes’ greatest attractions– and I, too, have done that. But Ihave found an easier and moreimmediate solution, an escape to adifferent kind of island, to combatthis weather-induced melancholy.The inversion layer is only a fewhundred metres thick and, if youdrive up any mountain road – a skifield or an alpine pass – you quicklyget out of the drizzly fog and into themost brilliant sunshine. We take ourpicnics and hiking gear and driveup to spend a few hours in the sun,recharging our inner solar batteriesat an altitude. From up there, theinversion layer is like a white sea,with the mountain peaks protrudingfrom it like an island archipelago.With the sunlit fog blinding like thesurface of a glacier, the views arewhat this land must have lookedlike at the peak of the Ice Age.After soaking up the sun andthe wide-open vistas, we returnto the world of fog, immune to itssombre moods.PHOTOGRAPHY: PHOTO NZ22 AA Directions Winter 2013