Overnight tramp up Mt Starevall

O-kaay.  I should have posted as soon as I got home, but I suppose two days isn't that much of a delay...  On Friday/Saturday I went on a tramp with an old friend of mine to the top of Mt Starevall.  I'll try to post a link to a map here but most people ought to know where it is.

We drove right through Aniseed valley and parked at the Hacket picnic area.  There's a patch of the river here deep enough to go bridge diving.  I did not.

It was interesting, I suppose, but there would be time for enough for a swim afterwards.  I think we started walking about ten to 11, if the time on the camera was anything to go by.

After about two hours walking along a boring mountain bike track and along the side of a river, we broke away from the pine forests and began actual hiking.

Oh yes, that is the Hacket hut, where we had lunch but did not stay.  And that's me, the long-haired spook.

Taking decent photos in native bush with a point-and-shoot without a tripod is extremely hard, but I did try.  I didn't get hardly any decent enough to post, because the climb suddenly turned very, very steep and all thoughts of cameras and such fled my mind.

We stopped for a break at a lookout of sorts, overlooking this.  I believe it's called Pyramid rock.

Until this.  Eventually we made it into the cloud layer and things began to get a lot more interesting.

Among other things, I found inspiration for a new way to paint white, but that was only a side thing, because--

LOOK at this, LOOK at it!  I thought I would never get the chance to take a photo like this-!!
It reminds me of that game "The Path" if you know it.  I liked that game.

We passed by where some trolls had lost their temper.  There were massive patches of wind damage scattered all over the place.

After four hours steep climbing through the same native bush, Starevall hut was a most welcome sight indeed.  Here we met a German who was tramping his way down the country.  Very keen-- not something I would be trying any time soon.

I was walking around the hut for a bit, and I felt a pecking about my feet.  We have chickens at home, so I thought nothing of it until I looked down-- it was actually a weka.  There were a total of three at one point, and they were so tame they would eat out of your hand and nick things out of your backpack if you let them.  I'm glad they don't learn like kea do.

They're also very hard to get a decent photo of.

I thought also to take a few photos of my miniatures while I was here.

I dispatched a seven-man devastator squad to escort my 7th chaplain across the wilderness.  This is actually the first time I have seen my miniatures under natural daylight and I was surprised.

Here's my 7th chaplain and his helmet bearer.

This reminds me of that scene from the Ultramarines movie.

Anyway, straying off-topic:  we stayed the night in the hut, proposing to set off about ten the next morning.

Instead we were all awake by half past seven, so we left at eight.  That slightly rounded peak in the middle was where we were aiming for.

This is more my kind of terrain.  Above the tree-line, there was little vegetation beside the tussock and lichens.

We carried on for so long we ended up in Lanaryuu province in north Hyrule.  No, really-- it was only about an hour from the hut to the summit.

And I kicked myself all the way home because I didn't get any photos of the peak; I was very glad my friend had his camera too, otherwise I'd still be kicking myself.

I was in the middle of taking my backpack off in this photo, it's not some trendy slip-shod way of wearing it.

On occasion, the cloud would clear enough to see the hut.  I zoomed right in and still it's hardly a speck.

The way down took half the time it did going up.  I suppose we were a total of forty hours on the mountain.

GOATS!  I only just managed to get my camera out and take this before they dashed into the bush.

We took a slight, thirty-minute detour on the way home to see the Whispering falls.  A creek appears to pass through a massive patch of moss, creating this magnificent display.  The path was covered in water, but there was no mud anywhere at all.

It was bigger than it looked.  note the fake MJ lean.

That was that.  This is the longest post I've done so far...  My legs are still recovering from the hammering they took on the way up.  I got a lot of inspiration for writing and painting and all sorts.  I don't think it would be my favorite tramp, though; Iron Hill up the Cobb valley takes that place-- but mt Starevall was still fantastic.

D