The Misty Mountain Experience

A couple weeks ago I saw this awesome picture of The Remarkables. The picture was taken on the Ben Lomond summit and they were surrounded by low level clouds. I thought I could get a picture of that if I could get the right type of clouds and climb the mountain again. So after the past few days of perfect clouds and checking the weather I set my alarm clock for 4:30am.

I left a little after 5am and couldn't see anything. I didn't have a flashlight either (great planning). The first part of the hike goes up a road so I could follow the lighter sky above through the trees as it snaked it's way up the mountain through a really thick and extremely dark forest. Only in New Zealand would I do this, nothing can eat you here. I couldn't even see my feet. The only way I avoided "high stepping" it the whole way and thus moving extremely slow was by using my two walking sticks to "feel"the ground in front of me. As I walked all ghost stories I have ever heard came into my mind along with what I was going to tell the police if I stumbled across a body. I started to laugh at some points about how ridiculous I was thinking.

Anyways, after stumbling around in the forest I did make it to the track at the top and was in the middle of a cloud. After a few more minutes I was not disappointed. I was just above the clouds and the sun was about to come up. Absolutely incredible view! I would've paid huge money to see that but the best things in life are free.



Then I continued up the ridge a bit and heard this weird thing that sounded like a sheep or something. I knew there were goats around but this sounded different. Then I saw this bird flying in. I could tell by the colouration on it's wings and the profile that it was a Kea, the world's only alpine parrot. cool. I know they're really curious about stuff so I whistled and waved at it and it circled around to check me out. Another one came and I was able to get really close and take some awesome pictures. By the time I left I was about 8 ft away from them which was close enough for me. Look at that beak! They could probably chomp through my hand. It was an awesome experience!

Sort of looks like Chico here.

I lined them up for this one.

Like I said, I got really close.

I continued up to the top and snapped some pics. The air is much clearer in the morning especially when it's crisp out.

Looking back towards the birds.

There were wild goats part way up. Not too friendly and they smelled like a barn.

Lake Wakatipu is under there.

180 over Lake Wakatipu. Click on it to make it bigger.

Here are the goats on the way down having a nap.

On another note, the ground up there was frozen! First time I've seen that in a year or so.