The misty forest has its own residents. This is one of them. The lizard of the misty forest. Cloudy Gecko has a pattern that resembles the clouds that drift over the Southern Alps. At seven to nine centimetres in length, it is a medium-sized gecko, with grey to brown colouration and darker blotches and spots that resemble clouds. Belly is pale cream, eyes large and dark, adapted for night vision. A gecko that wears the weather on its skin. A gecko of the beech forest. Found throughout the South Island, in beech and podocarp forests, scrublands, and regenerating bush. A nocturnal species, hiding under bark and in crevices during the day, emerging at night to hunt insects among leaves and branches. A lizard that lives where the rain falls and the mist hangs. Viviparous, giving birth to live young. Females produce one or two offspring each year, a slow reproductive rate typical of New Zealand geckos. The young are born in late summer and are miniature versions of the adults, independent from birth. A slow return. A long wait. Not threatened. Widespread and common in the South Island, with healthy populations throughout its range. Still vulnerable to predation by introduced rats and cats, and to habitat loss from forest clearance. To see a Cloudy Gecko is to see a creature of the misty forest, a lizard that has lived in the trees of the South Island for millions of years. Its cloudy pattern is a reminder of the weather that shapes the landscape, of the rain and the mist that feed the forests. The forest is damp. The mist hangs low. The gecko clings to a branch, its cloudy pattern blending with the lichen. It does not move. It does not need to. It has been here for millions of years. It will be here as long as the mist keeps falling.