Mt Tapi

The Beautiful Mt Tappy - or Mt Tapuae-o-Uenuku. This is Marlborough's Sacred Mountain and the tallest in the area at 2885metres. (9465 feet).

The Mistress and I were lucky enough to be offered a ride up Black Birch Mountain (4WD Access only and 1695 Metres or 5555 Feet) very early this morning to get unsurpassed views of the whole area. From the top of Black Birch, we could see over to the North Island, we could see the Salt Ponds, Cape Campbell, the Waihopai Valley and Spy Base, Renwick where we live, Mt Olympus. It was just amazing.

We also got excited to see a Sky Lark up there, hopping amongst the lichen covered rocks, the Marlborough Rock Daisies, the native White Gentians, and lots of other fascinating alpine plants.

All in all great day, and the Mistress was careful to keep her balance and not fall or trip on the uneven ground. We got back down in one piece.

Mt Tappy is also the mountain where Sir Edmund Hillary trained as often as he could for his successful Mt Everest climb.

Great day all round.