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Published: March 1st 2007
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November 26th - Day one of the KT was mostly uphill. We gained quite a bit of elevation for the distance, though I don't remember specifics. Even so, at the top we were only around 4000 feet above sea level. Most of the day we hiked through beech forest covered in ferns and wildflowers and crazy mosses and lichens. That landscape was beautiful. Toward the end, though, we came out of the trees and into a part that was covered in tussock grass. As we walked we started to feel something hitting our faces. I thought, “that can't be snow” and said as much to Masa, but it surely was. It snowed all that night and by the morning the area around the hut was a late spring wonderland... the closest to a white Thanksgiving I'd ever come.
The huts along the Great Walks in New Zealand are really nice, actually. They consist of a portion which is heated by a wood and coal burning stove and lit with electric lights (mostly running on solar). This part also has many tables and benches as well as several cooking stations with gas cookers. The other portion of the hut is not
heated or lit and consists of bunks on which there are cushions where you put your sleeping bag for the night. The bathrooms are also part of the non-heated portion. We met a lot of people the first night in the hut, and since we were all traveling the same trail for four days and staying in the same huts for three nights, we got to know them along the way. These people included two other engaged couples from California (san fransisco and pasadena) weird huh? We also met a really cool English guy who hiked with us through the snow the following day. But that's getting ahead...
The first night we had soup to warm our bellies before bed and filled our nalgenes with boiling water but still basically froze all night long. The bunk rooms have no heat, like I said, and the tempuratures were probably well below freezing that night since all the snow was sticking. I, smarty pants that I am, had opted for a lighter sleeping bag on the second leg of the trip rather than bringing my nice big warm one I'd had in Peru. I mean hey, we were heading for summer
right? Yeah. Anyway so we both got up super early just to get out of the cold and into the semi-warm common area. We got on the trail pretty early that morning both to warm up and to take advantage of the blue sky we saw out the window. Never know how long that will last.
November 27th - The second day's hike was up and down mostly above the tree line (which we learned was there because the ground above the very distinct line doesn't get above 10 degrees celsius for more than one month out of the year, and so the trees won't grow above that line). We hiked through the snow that had fallen the afternoon and night before. It was pretty cold. We climed to the summit of Mt. Luxmore, which is only something like 4400 feet or some nonsense like that. We didn't complain about the abundancy of oxygen, that's for sure. The views all along the ridgelines above the tree line were absolutely breathtaking. I coudn't stop taking photos. Literally. I knew I'd taken a certain shot about 29 times and couldn't stop myself from continuing to take the same shot and very
similar variations. The English guy, Jon, seemed to be having the same problem, so we took our time that day enjoying the drama of our surroundings and stopping often for photo ops. BTW Jon was hiking in shorts most of the day, claiming his legs don't get cold. But even he put on his “trousers” for a while. Towards the end of the hike on day 2 we descended back into the bush, still stopping to admire and photograph often along the way. We reached the second hut and everyone but me went to see some waterfall nearby. I was way too lazy. Masa promised to take pictures but the batteries went dead in the camera so I'll never know what I was missing. Oh well I was happy sitting around in the warm hut with my hot water chatting with whomever happened along. That night was much warmer than the first.
November 28th - Day three was spent hiking under the canopy in and out of drizzle. The third night's hut was actually too warm (because I went to bed totally bundled up and ended up waking in the middle of the night all sweaty and had to
shed some layers. Then I decided to go to the bathroom since it was a long ways off from morning. I couldn't find the headlamp (a new one) at first and was about to make masa come with me when I found it. Good thing too because when I walked out the door toward the restrooms I spotted a huge possum on the stairs just chilling out licking the banister post. I made shooing motions but it was not nearly as perturbed by me as I was by it so it just looked at me and kept on about its business. Eventually I grabbed a trekking pole hanging on a hook outside the door and made as if to poke the thing, finally it waddled off in no particular hurry. It would have been kind of cool if I hadn't had to pee so badly.
November 29th - The fourth and final day of the hike was the worst weather. Up until then we'd had unbelievable luck. Even though it had been cold and snowy, I'll take snow over rainy and muddy any day. And most of our actual hiking time had been without any precipitation at all. The
fourth day started out similarly, with just a light drizzle. We walked at a decent pace for the first half of the hike. But by the time we reached the halfway point we were pretty tired of hiking and the rain was growing steadier so we picked up the pace until we were really cruising. When all was said and done we got from the hut to the door of our hostel (right about 20K or 12 miles) in just under four hours. In the pouring rain. We were proud. 😊
Naturally the room we'd reserved wasn't ready for us yet, but luckily they let us clean up and shower and warm up. When we arrived we were soaked to the skin and though we were pretty warm while we were walking, we very rapidly chilled off. It was nice to get into a hot shower and dry clothes.
That evening we met up with some of the people we met on the track for beers. That was pretty fun. The whole Kepler Track was a really awesome thing, I'd most definitely try to do another Great Walk sometime in the future, and I'd recommend it to anyone
who likes to hike and is visiting NZ.... like say the Bedard-Hearns. 😊 So that was Kepler Track.
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