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cadman342001 wrote:
Thanks Colin. Like I say this one wasn't too badly located. This one is from Lake Matheson mirror lake. That was a 10 minute drive then 30 min hike around the lake to the viewpoint in freezing conditions 😳
Man this is beautiful. That place was awesome, I was there in winter and while the photos are only from the phone, I had a rather unnerving interaction...
So yeah, there's a lot less travelers in winter, and I don't really meet many others on our hikes except the really popular short ones. Winter also meant the trail would get dark pretty fast, diminishing light levels, but I calculated I could just about make it +/- 10mins of sunset according to Google. So I drove really fast and put on my best Bear Grylls impression, told my fam to pick up the pace.
When i got to the trail head, there was only 1 other car parked, where the souvenir shop and cafe both posted 'Closed Down' signs (a recurrent theme throughout our travels, covid really hit them hard as they seem heavily reliant on tourism).
Midway we met this lone photographer with full macro photography gear. I guess she was freaked out to have someone else so deep into the forest; never acknowledged our greetings nor faced us (only glimpsed her face on our way out). Guessed she was some kinda research student perhaps, nobody can be that fascinated with fungi! She was taking photos of extremely tiny mushroom...
But no bother, it was another 15mins to the lookout point and we needed to hustle. It's all quiet, no birds, no insects, deathly silence but for our huffing, smoky breath with each exhalation, the loose shale and pointy rocks burrowing deep into my sole (why did i wear my vibram five fingers?!) as I shuffled as fast as I could, up and down an undulating path.
Then I heard voices. Muffled. Far away. Distinctly a female voice talking animatedly, then quiet. Rising again in laughter.
We all stopped dead in our tracks. And I motioned to my group, maybe it's other hikers......
Plus that meant that we were close by, innit?
Another 7 minutes and the gloomy forest breaks open into the vista you see above. Clear reflected waters ... and a group of 4, 2 young men and two young women, trying to take a wefie of sorts. The man spots me first and yells for his companion to ask us for help. And she turns, nods, then starts conversing in a foreign-to-me language with her group.
And she asks, in English, whether I could help them take a photo. I obliged, largely because it's inevitable when other tourists spot my own camera gear hanging off the side as a signal I must be good (they were right, of course, ahem), and because i needed them off the spot quickly.
Oh but she was a bossy one lol, giving me a litany of instructions - could you do it from the first step, and then by the side, then come down in front of us - all while speaking to her group in another language, likely giving them instructions too on how to pose.
I ham it up and play along, assuming my 'wedding photographer taking group shots' persona and decide to give them my best gift - my favorite pose - for the group to all stand and look out into the lake, into space, point if they want to but it's of their backs. Once I'm done I hand the phone back and she raises a hand for me to stay there while she reviewed the photos. I know I'm due a 5-star review as I listened to the Ooohs and Aaahs...
As part of the social contract of meeting other travelers while hiking, I asked my rather routine question - I heard you speaking in a language unfamiliar to me, where are you guys from?
"Israel" they said, all happy and beaming.
In reply I went, "Oh wow, Israel!" because for me, it's pretty uncommon to meet Israelites. Lots and lots of Asians. Europeans too.
Here's where it gets weird and dark all of a sudden. Guy in hoodie takes a huge steps forward now in front of the rest and asks, with hints of a menacing confrontational tone, "Why do you have that response? What do you mean by Oh wow, Israel?"
I am distinctly aware that I'm quite a bit aways from civilisation, with a young child and my elderly parents. But I shrug, open my palms out in a non-threatening manner and replied with candour that they were my first ever Israeli tourists I have ever seen in my 11 days in New Zealand - lots from China, Singapore/Malaysia, India.
He stops, ponders with a raised eyebrow for about 3 seconds holding my gaze, then quips, Oh okay. And just like that, he turns around and walks away, herding the rest, the dark forest swallowing them up.
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We heated with wood in our last house and this one for a total of 35 years. But, I stopped heating this way last year when we had a new high efficiency heat pump installed. Still have the woodstove, but when it's so windy, the draft doesn't work well so we tough it out until the power comes back. If it wasn't so windy, I would have fired it up.
