Lake Hawea sunset

above: My friend Roger working the landscape photography on Mt Grand on Sat. night

We left Wanaka at 6pm after taking some photos of a local cricket
match and headed to the obscure beginnings of the 4wd track up the
Grandview mountains which run from the north shores of Lake Hawea
down to the lower Lindis river near Tarras. I've driven the the track before so the
only mystery was how some gates were kept shut, as the chaining was
different and complex for them all - I guess they don't get used much.

The light was perfect for photos and I got so many similar good ones,
I'm not sure how to file them. Roger must have got great ones as
well, but as the sun sank there was a bleat from up the hill that was
not a sheep - he'd put his camera box down somewhere in the
excitement, and it was a grey colour so similar to the detritus
around snow tussock.

Dougal found that OK, after I'd got us doing a grid pattern using my
GPS [which I'd only turned on to see the height - 1400 meters] but of
course as I wandered about it tracked me].

Then Roger realised he'd also lost his shutter release cable! These
are very small, old school and hard to buy now, so the search really
began, and it was silver! That one took an hour into the gathering
gloom, and I found it [I thought I would as having exhausted GPS
bread crumb trail I started walking letting my tramping experience
always guide my feet to the line of least resistance].

We then adjourned to the camper truck for supper of fresh baked
bread, tuna, salad and hot tomato soup - it was yummy. I had the
National Radio Sat. night requests on the radio for ambience [I do
love them!], and Roger got a fit of the giggles as Doris Day did a
rendition of a love song, and then we had a 1938 version of Good
Bless America etc. etc. He decided a picture book should be published
by himself: the adventures on Donald and Dougal [I'm not sure if he
was joking or not!]. I think it was one of those special moments
we'll never forget.. so cosy too, while a wicked southerly breeze
whispered outside and groaned and whistled as it swirled around the
roof rack.

We got back just on midnight, after a mostly easy descent [a lower grass section of the track - very steep, had a dew on it, which I'd expected but none the less was one of those things you don't want, as it's a bit unsettling in bad run out zones to feel the wheelsstarting to slide, and the engine relieved of braking responsibilities going back to an idle as speed increases].