Mount Cook at Midnight

After a particularly long and stressful day cleaning, meeting at work and driving for nearly 4 hours, we got to the beautiful Mount Cook Village. After checking in and having a quick snack, we set out exploring on foot. That lasted about an hour so we went back and got the car because we were walking ridiculously slow. Driving to the other side of the village, by village, I mean driving from one hotel to another hotel, took about 3 minutes.

Dusk approached as hunger set in so we tried the hotel for dinner, 9.30 was too late for the buffet section but the real restaurant was still going. We turned into those annoying people that turn up 30mins before service ends. Obviously we apologised and obviously they assured us it wasn't a problem but we know better than that. Dinner was some fantastic venison accompanied by side salad then finished nicely with strawberry sorbet, set to the spectacular view of Mount Cook glowing in the sunset. The view was worth the price of the meal.

Stepping into the darkness of the hotel car park, we stumbled on some fellow diners staring at the stars above, these had been hiden from us by the reflection of the restaurant lights. Much discussion over what constellations were visible and where things were in the southern hemisphere prompted me to think about what I learned at the observatory, eventually I got dizzy from looking up and couldn't help anyone. Time for bed.

Bed wasn't an option once we got back to the room, that 3 minute drive did nothing to tire me out, I picked up the camera, there were stars and snow capped mountains to be found and snapped! Back to the other hotel... I caused a lot of needless polloution tonight... After persuading Nomi to join me in the cold and dark, away from people and lights, I started putting into practice the things I learnt about shooting the night sky. What I dont know how to do yet, is get the right ballance to bring out these fantastic mountains and stars at the same time. I often get confused as to what the subject of my pictures should be and end up with no subject at all.

Happy with about 45 mins of snapping, we returned to the warmth and comfort of our room. Then, exhausted but excited about what I had captured, something rather strange happend, as we turned the key in the lock and began discussing the lack of light in the room we hear a female voice call out "hello". Immediately, we apologised, swore and ran away to the correct room this time! Our key was able to open someone elses door, who on earth decided that was a good idea?

Faffing about in preperation for the morning, I managed to accidentally eat a lot of chocolate biscuits, doubtless my body was craving energy after not sleeping properly all last week. If you ever need to have crazy dreams, I recommend eating large amounts of sugar and dairy before passing out. A crazy sleep to end a crazy day. Wonderful.