Looking across the airport runway we witnessed the first rays of sun light up an impressive fog bank drifting slowly across the lake.
Generated by the warmer waters of Sulphur Bay near the Government Gardens, a gentle southerly had shaped and funnelled this ethereal feature to directly enshroud Mokoia Island. It truly was an awe-inspiring sight.
Here's yet another delightful characteristic of our lakes district, especially during the change of seasons.
As the temperature drops, the lakes around us become warmer than the atmosphere to provide the most mystical steaming experiences.
Add geothermal features to this mix, and Rotorua has all the environmental ingredients to create the most awesome natural spectacles.
For the photographer, this is the stuff of fantasy as images and landscapes become shrouded in steam or fog to produce compelling ghostly images.
Indeed, artists have been using mist to add atmosphere in landscape paintings for centuries.
Water vapor tends to appear as a cool color, and, especially when sunlight strikes, it emits a translucent kind of light that makes a scene beautifully ethereal.
For those of us inspired by the natural landscape, winter also delivers lower sunlight angles to give real contrast and character to the land.
In the height of summer, sunlight rises quickly above a vista, so there is less time to enjoy the long cool shadows and defining contours of a landscape.
And there is more to delight the artist in the colder months - especially when using acrylic paints.
Most acrylics will not dry under a temperature of around 10C.
This means that painting below this temperature gives a long window of opportunity to 'move' paint around and create giant blended areas.
Over the summer months I sometimes paint from 4am when the world is still quiet, and cooler temperatures enable better paint control- especially with larger works.
During the winter however, it is great that these preferred painting conditions can sometimes stay all day.
Sure, it can be a bit nippy in the studio at times, but this is a small sacrifice when considering the result.
So, roll on the winter, with all the promise of spectacular light play and mystical effect on our environment and landscape.
Remember too, just as you cannot have light without dark, winter ensures the following spring will be even more special.
Marc Spijkerbosch is the public arts advisor for the Rotorua Lakes Council.
