Mt Tapuae-o-Uenuku.......

......in the clouds!

We seemed to spend an awful lot of time in the van today, driving out to the back of beyond only to find the mist, fog and rain concealing what we knew were stunning scenes.

Frustrating, but a great way of demonstrating to us how dedicated Andy has to be in order to achieve his amazing images. 

The trip was memorable for other reasons too - narrow, mountain road, unsealed and muddy from all the rain, a driver who drove with maybe a tad too much confidence,  loss of traction, heart in mouth, tail of van sliding uncontrollably towards edge of track, over-correction on steering wheel, a momentarily silent van..........then a collective sigh and plenty of rolling eyes as the van found traction again.

There were other stories too - like this image which we wouldn't have seen had we not turned back to find the other van which ought to have met us over 30 minutes ago.  We turned around (yet another story!) and headed back to find them, many of us expecting to find them over the edge.  Instead, we found them parked up, cameras out enjoying the best views of the whole weekend.   With no cell-phone coverage it was impossible for them to tell us what they were doing so they just carried on figuring that we'd meet up eventually!

(That's Mt Tapuae-o-Uenuku in the cloud to the left of the picture)

Got back to Blenheim around 6.30 then headed straight home.  Too tired to do too much but unpack an dgo to bed.  

A fruistrating weekend but enjoyable anyway - it's always good to be out and about in the great outdoors and I did learn quite a few things too.  I just need to take my time now to try and practice a few things.

(PS the map location is a total guess.  Turn inland from Kekerunga, drive for miles and you're there......)