Roy, you are evil!

Well the day dawned, lightly cloudy, so off we set to Roy's Peak, boy was it a slog, switchback after switchback, down to shorts and vest in no time despite the fact it was still cloudy!

Mt Iron that we romped up yesterday ( I was actually pointing at a bush, but it seems to work)

I'm not sure if the cloud was a good thing or a bad thing, it meant we couldn't see the top, which didn't seem to get any closer. We stopped to talk to all the people who were coming down (whatever time had they started?) 10.00 for us, which seemed quite civilised, 07.00 for one couple who'd had to play peek-a-boo with the view, and we didn't ask the guy who had had no view at all!

well there's the ridge, but we still don't know where we are going!

 Once on the ridge it cleared quite a lot and the views started to appear, worth it as you can see.
Though I wasn't sure I wanted to be informed that at 1575m it was about the height of Ben Nevis as we were part way up!

We were even there together - now that makes a change!

We got to the summit just after the helicopter had landed and some maintenance guys had done something to the telecoms mast on the top (and given some water to those already there - apparently they always get asked so now they just take some. Kiwi's are really lovely people!





After a quick lunch stop we set off back down, not looking forward to that any more than the up really - it's down that kills my knees, but the glucosamine and the lack of hard surface to walk on seemed a good combination, we were glad to get to the bottom, but it wasn't as painful as expected.


We are pleased to report we are still beating book time on everything - 5-6 hours, the board and the paperwork said, 4 1/2 hours including stops Crosses say!

We even felt we'd earnt the iced coffee (B's new speciality, he whips cream and crushes ice cubes, the works) and cake!

Despite the forecast rain we remained dry, except for a few spots shortly after this photo out of a seemingly clear blue sky.

I sat outside, as per picture and 13 quail pottered about within 6' of me, some adult, some young. Very cute they are too, though a bit shouty!

B missed the quail, but he's just put a crust out so we are now inundated with sparrows, and they won't give up, they wanted the french stick we had for supper too!