Escape to a summit sunset

I spent most of this Saturday in my office.

In my opinion Saturdays and offices should not be allowed in the vicinity of each other, but the joys of being in a new job — and it won’t stop being new until after I’m not doing things for the first time, which implies the end of 2013 at the earliest — mean that I have more work to do than I hope is normal (even if I won’t know what is normal until 2014 … * sigh *), and so I have had to spend a few more hours in the office than I would like. I could work at home but, compared to being in the office, I’m less efficient at home — and I tend to eat more!

So, the office it is.

At 4:45, however, I looked up at the mountain and decided I’d had enough. The day’s weather had been fairly unpleasant, but had improved to a glorious afternoon. The cloudy skies had cleared, the sun was lowering, and the thought of alpine terrain with a touch of snow at sunset overrode the imperative obligations of nagging work matters. I abandoned the office, jumped in the car and headed up the Pinnacle Rd to the summit of Mt Wellington. Now, just because it was a glorious afternoon didn’t mean that it was warm, and so my new down-filled puffer jacket got a good test in the -1°C temperatures (with added wind chill factor). I was, therefore, nice and snuggly and warm as I wandered around the summit in the late afternoon light, although my fingers suffered a little every time I wanted to take a photo. There was a little snow still left on the ground and then the sun made an impressive descent behind clouds that were also drifting over the far ridges and its rays reflected off little tarns scattered across the plateau.

Glorious.

And then I went back to my office to record two online lecture presentations.