I've just returned from NZ no more than a week ago and I can't stop thinking about the strange man I saw while tramping through the forest. If you know New Zealand then you would know about the Fox River. I joined a walking tour which took 15 days tramping through the South Island exploring. It was the second night of the tour as we all slept under the stars. Our campsite was near an old disused mine. Visible were the old rails that they used to push the trolley deep into the mine. From what our guide told us, bats live in there. "Cool," thinks I, "bear that in mind."
It was too tight to explore but I got into the mouth of the mine and peered in. For a second I thought I saw what looked to be a light moving but it could've been anything (glowing fungus maybe?) We set up camp and made dinner over an open fire. Being an Aussie bushman, I knew how to make a decent fire and soon had damper on the go. It was around 9pm when we all hit our sleeping bags and before we knew we were all asleep.
It was 2AM when my bladder woke me up. I remembering staggering along the trail, away from camp and stood relieving myself. As I turned to go back to the camp, there I saw this light bopping along the track towards me. I thought at first it might be some backpacker walking the track at night (people do that, believe it or not) but there was something odd about this light. It was a sickly yellow, reminding me of a lantern. Then I saw him. A bearded old man wearing a dirty shirt and dark corduroy pants. Then... He vanished. I saw him one minute and the next...gone! Guess I did freak a bit but fascinated at the same time.
I didn't tell anyone but I didn't need to. Cloe, one of the girls who was tracking with us, said she saw this old man walking past her as she laid on the ground. I told everyone about what I saw. The guide looked shocked but said nothing. Later on in the day we both dropped back from the group and she told me who that man was. He was a hermit who used to mine those hills and one day he vanished. As it turned out his mine caved in on him, killing him and his body was never retrieved. What me and Cloe saw was the old miner's ghost still going back to his mine, still chipping away for that gold.
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