Sub alpine

My tramping trips often show vistas but today we've mostly had persistent drizzle and low flat light.

We've got the fire in the hut roaring and today's clothes will soon dry out. It doesn't matter how good your jacket is or what kind of fancy space age fabric, you still get wet. Either the rain eventually finds it way in or you sweat and get wet.

The beech forest smelled sweet and fresh (except for one particularly fetid stretch of mud). Rifflemen were the most common birds on this trip. They're tiny and appear to have no tail feathers. They love the rain and drips through the forest. They feast on tiny insects sheltering beneath leaves. We also saw Fantails and the ubiquitous South Island Robin.

It's a hobbit kind of place. I imagine very tiny hobbits could cook up all sorts of magic in the grasses, sedges and mosses of the Nina Valley.

Magical big