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Published: April 19th 2009
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Manapouri
Stunning views over the lake Nibby- You've got to love it, a vast wilderness of lush forest and blissful lakes. On the other hand, you can also hate it! Not the place, but the dreaded, blood thirsty, Sandfly! We found the most amazing backpackers, in a place called Manapouri, that was up on a hill and looked out over the lake with the mountains behind it. We had our very own hut with a kitchen and everything! It felt very special for us!
When we had been in Christchurch we looked at booking on to do the Milford Track which is a 4 day tramp right into the heart of the Fiordland with spectacular views. It is New Zealand's most popular tramp which is why you have to book it us 5 months is advance! We were rather gutted but decided that we were going to tackle another of NZ's great walks around the Fiordland, the Kepler Track. We managed to book onto this track for Monday 23rd so we had a day to get ourselves sorted with supplies and what not. We knew it was going to be a tough walk. Most people do the whole walk, which is about 70km, in 4 days
The Kepler Track
Nibz and Triggi at the start of the mammoth walk but we decided that we were going to do the slightly more reasonable distance of 50km in 3 days so only having to camp in the hunts for 2 nights. There are only a limited number of beds in the huts which is why you have to book onto the track. It's quite nice because it means there isn't an obscene number of people on the walk like there was on the 1 day Tongariro Crossing we did in the North Island.
So day one of our tramp arrived, and we were loaded up with everything we could possibly need and more (more being Triggi. He sat on the outside of my pack and got all the great views, some Tigers get all the luck!). We were prepared for it to be a pretty tough day as we were climbing about 800 metres and covering 14kms. By pure chance we had booked to walk on the days with the best weather conditions we could have hoped for, so by the time we reached the bushline we were provided with stunning panoramic views of the Te Anau Basin and the surrounding mountain range. A further 45 minute climb and we
The Kepler Track
Views from the top of the tree line reached day one's destination, Luxmore Hut. Our feet were pretty worn and we were both tired out so after some lovely noodle and egg soup we hit the sack in preparation for day two. Surely the worst was over and done with now wasn't it!?!
Up nice and early to watch the sun rise over the mountains (well one of us was anyway!) we headed off on another day of sore feet and fab views. I was convinced that the second day couldn't possibly be as difficult as the first because we had done most of the climbing, oh how disillusioned I was! There was a lot more ups to come and a lot more downs for that matter. We got the best views ever on this day. The track mainly followed the mountain ridge so we could see right down into the fingers of the lake. We also did the 20 minute side trip to Mount Luxmore (1472m) which offered some more stunning views. After sidling along the mountain ridge for some hours it was now time for the big descent. It seemed to go on forever! Zigzag, zigzag, zigzag we went. I don't know how I didn't
The Kepler Track
The end of day one, what a view to go to bed to! cry. I think by this point my blisters had blisters and my legs were like jelly, but every so often a group of 4 or 5 60 year old would come trundling past us and I would put on my brave face and think, 'if they can do it, I sure as hell can bloody do it!'. Poor Matt was also suffering. When we finally did reach the next hut he took his boots off to reveal a huge blister on his heel. Oh the pain. Matt thought it would be a good idea to have a wash in the river as there are no showers at the huts. (No showers and 2 days walking = lots of very smelly people!). It was possibly the coldest river in the world! He didn't last long. I on the other hand was much more sensible and had a stand up basin wash every night. Still pretty cold though!
The third and final day arrived, welcomed by sore muscles in places we didn't know we had them, and blisters on our broken feet. Luckily the rest of the track this was mainly flat but it was over a distance of 22kms. We
needed to get a shuttle bus from the end of the track back to where our car was parked but the buses were running at really inconvenient times. There was one at 2:30pm, 3pm and then not one until 5pm. We left the hut with 6 hours to get the 3pm bus but it supposedly took 7-8 hours to get there, so we set off at a pretty good pace needing to make the time up somewhere. That didn't last long! I was totally burnt out. By the time we made it to our lunch stop I could hardly put one foot in front of the other, so Matt being the amazing superhuman that he is, practically emptied my pack into his and then ran the last 6 kms so he could catch the 3pm bus and we wouldn't have to wait around for too long. After some tucker and a little rest I found my reserve energy supply and set off on my own for the last stint of our tramp. I was met at the end, Rainbow Reach, by my knight in shining armour on horseback, in other words Matt was there with the car. What a hero.
The Kepler Track
Sunrise over the mountains So 3 days later, blister plasters-a-plenty, we had reached the end, and what a great feeling that was. We spent the next few days in Manapouri recovering with the great views from our cabin and even managed to get Matts teeth fixed in Te Anau. That was a real bonus that the dentist had just had a cancellation!
We took a drive to Milford to do a cruise out into the sound, it didn't involve any walking so we were both happy. The drive to Milford is so beautiful you could spend all day getting there if you stopped off at all the different lookouts that are signposted but we had a boat to catch so couldn't mess around with all that nonsense. We only just caught the boat with 5 minutes to spare because we got caught behind a tour bus and then got stopped at Homer Tunnel which is a massive one way tunnel with a 15 minute wait at the lights at each end if you're unlucky. We only had to wait 5 minutes thank goodness!
So we made it on the boat (just) and off we sailed into the sound with Mitre Peak thrust out
The Kepler Track
Lake Te Anau covered with clouds in front of us. It is said that the sound is best explored in a heavy downpour as this gets all the waterfalls in full flow but it wasn't to be so for our trip. We still had a great time and a pod of commmon dolphins even blessed us with their presence which was a great added bonus. They seemed huge compared to the tiny Hector's we were swimming with in Porpoise Bay. On the way back to Manapouri we were able to stop off at all the places we had to rush past on the way up to the sound so we didn't miss out in the end.
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