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Published: December 26th 2010
Brod Bay
The start of the Kepler TrekSaturday 12-18
We went to the local Christmas market today – very quaint with crafts and baked goods, fresh meats and x-mas toys. I found my favorite souvenir in NZ there: possum fur nipple warmers. If I could buy one for all you girls I would! They don’t leave the boys out either; they have possum fur willy warmers of you need those too. :o) We walked around Te Anau; it’s a small town mostly set up as a stop over for backpackers going to and from the treks and the fiord lands. We got to our motel (a holiday park) and, once again, my cheap ass was amazed at how much this country costs! Maybe I just don’t understand what “holiday park” means in NZ but they charge you a base price for a room; a little bit more if you want a larger bed (even thought the room is the same size. Then you have to pay extra to have bed sheets or a blanket; you have to pay extra if you want towels; you have to pay eatra if you want to use the bathroom located in your room; you have to pay extra to use any pots
or pans in the kitchen area. I’m amazed. It was nice to sit on our butts and watch some mindless tv for a while, though, I have to admit. A little Survivor, some Simpsons, odd NZ game shows and a British chocolate cooking show (my god it made me miss chocolate). Went shopping for camp food; hopefully we’ll have more food and more variety before our next hike tomorrow.
Sunday 12-19
Our good luck with perfect hiking weather has finally run out. Today is rainy and overcast; not too bad though. By the time the water taxi took is over to Brod Bay, the rain had mostly stopped and hiking thru the forest provided us with some cover anyway. The boat we took across Lake Te Anau was pretty nice – saved us a couple hours hiking from the trail head before we started our 800m climb. My god was it brutal – I could really feel the extra 5lbs of weight from our 1 extra day of food, ugh! The climb was estimated to take about 4.5
hours; after 1 hour I was dying. Thank god it only took is about 2 hours to reach the hut ; I was drenched in sweat & dying of thirst. The Luxmore Hut, however, was stunning! It’s been my favorite place so far: nestled in the hills just below Mt. Luxmore, above the tree line, it overlooks the alpine ridges and has (when the clouds part) a beautiful full of Lake Te Anau below.
The crazy thing is we got to camp so early, before 11am, that we didn’t have much to do all day until the standard ranger briefing at 7:30pm. Our hikes have mostly gone like this:
• Wake up early
• Breakfast & pack
• Hike, hike, hike, hike, hike (an average of about 5 hours)
• Arrive @ hut & lunch
• Read, nap, wake up
• Read, nap, wake up
• Hike around hut & socialize w/other trampers
• Read, play cards or dominoes
• Make dinner & listen
Luxmore Hut
Quite a view! to ranger talk
• Read & go to sleep
I can’t recall a time in recent memory where I have slept so much! But man, are naps good :o)
Nearby was Luxmore Cave; a small crevice we could walk down into but not very far before it tapered down and you couldn’t fit anymore. It’s amazing how cold & dry the cave can feel and then you immediately step outside and it feels like you’re in a sauna w/ the warmth & high humidity – crazy thing is, it wasn’t even warm outside, just not as cold as inside the cave!
We played cards to pass the afternoon and Nick, to the brink of losing his patience, tried to teach me chess for the first time. Checkers seems much easier and more enjoyable to play. We were really looking forward to dinner b/c we thought to bring soup along this time. Nice hot, savory soup to warm us up, mmm…except that we forgot spoons, so it was quite comical trying to slurp hot soup from the bowl.
We were again fortunate
with the weather today – it didn’t start raining really hard until late afternoon, so we were tucked into our sleeping bags, all nice & cozy when the gale force winds picked up. The rain was pounding on the metal roof (a childhood sound Nick loves to fall asleep to) and the wind was so strong it was rocking the hut – it felt kind of like an earthquake rocking you to sleep.
Monday 12-20
OK, I spoke to soon about being fortunate with the weather. Woke up today and the wind & rain was still going strong. We headed out early to try and catch a break in the weather but it was short-lived break. The rain pounded us from a 45 degree angle (my shoes were soaked thru after the first 2 hours) and the wind practically ripped my poncho off me several times. Nick now has a cold, which is probably due to hiking in such weather all day. That’s it! Only fair weather hiking from now on! [Nick Note: Actually we got lucky, the weather was bad and windy but no gale force winds as were predicted and arrived later in the day. The people
who arrived to do the same hike the next day were not permitted to cross the mountains and were instead sent back to town.]
We hiked along the ridge line at the top of the mountains, which I’m sure would have provided beautiful scenery had the visibility been larger than 10m. We did get a good look at a kea for the first time. These alpine parrots are huge! About the size of a chicken and while their overall plumage is a plain green, under their wings is bright red, yellow & blue. They’d be very beautiful if they weren’t such a nuisance to hiking gear.
We descended back down into the tree line through temperate rainforest for the last couple hours of hiking (ugh, my knee is starting to get stiff again). It’s amazing here: if you ignore the cold & wind, this place looks very tropical. We’re just missing the sounds of birds, primates & insects. Sadly, NZ is like a “silent spring.” There have been so many invasive predators introduced (the big ones being rats and stoats – a type of small ferret) that native birds have been in serious decline the last few decades.
There are only a handful of native birds left and the forests are pretty silent and empty as a result. The one thing the South Island does have in abundance are sand flies – pretty innocuous though annoying flies that like to crawl over everything, including you. Until you get near water (which we were at the Iris Burn Hut), where the females need to feast on blood in order to nourish their eggs before laying them in shallow pools. Amazing how something so tiny that can bite so hard. But I am getting good at killing them with just 1 hand – Mr. Miyagi’s chopsticks be damned!
A gang of keas started showing up after night fall. We could hear them in the trees and walking on the metal roof. A few of them were playing around under the porch and trying to climb the stairs. We were warned to take all of our gear indoors overnight or the keas would shred it by morning. A couple young kids had all of their brightly colored gear spread out on the floor in front of one of the hut windows. It seemed to drive the keas insane that they
couldn’t reach the bright red water bottle or florescent yellow bag – they were screeching and clawing at the windows trying to get to it. It was kind of funny & heartbreaking at the same time.
Tuesday 12-21
It was still raining pretty hard when we woke up, so we decided to be lazy and get a late start at 10am to try and avoid the heaviest downpour. It seemed to work. The rain never stopped coming down but it was mostly a light drizzle, nothing like what we experienced the day before. At least that’s what the weather was like down in the valley were we were. We heard later that the rain and gale force winds were so bad at the ridge line that hikers were turned back and couldn’t hike any further. Fortunately, we seemed to be one day ahead of the really bad storm.
It was a beautiful 4 hour stroll through the forest floor, only a slight downhill today, which was good. We went thru huge fern tree forests and mossy groves. We hiked along the Iris Burn River and, due to all the rain, the river and the falls were gushing! It
was pretty cool. Makes me want to go white water rafting! I think the Kepler track has been a lot more scenic than the Routeburn; aside form the weather I’ve liked this hike a lot more. I’m so impressed by the NZ hiking system. We don’t really have anything like this in the US, at least not that I’ve experienced. The huts are incredibly well kept with all amenities you would need camping. The trails themselves are impeccably well maintained even in some very treacherous parts. There is a ranger stationed at each hut (8 days on, 6 days off) that has his/her own rapport with the hikers. We were told that the trails are able to be so well kept thanks to all of the German and Israeli (go figure) tourists who make up 50%!o(MISSING)f annual hikers. It was overall a very enjoyable experience; if anyone has the opportunity, I highly recommend tramping thru New Zealand (it sure beats going broke trying to spend time in the cities!). [Nick Note: I have been trying to pick one word to describe New Zealand and I think “pretty” is going to have to do. While there were not too many
spectacular things (the mountains are nice but they are not as spectacular as the US West and Milford Sound was interesting but it pales versus other natural wonders like Yosemite, Iguazu, or Grand Canyon, the forests are nice but not as rich as a a tropical rainforest), everything is very clean and nicely organized and there are lots of pretty things to see. It is all very pleasant, however it does not make you feel like you gotta come back for more.]
Dinner was good tonight! In an effort to get rid of all our food the last day, we gorged ourselves on cheesy toast and soup, mmm good. Though I have to admit, restaurant food and a nice hot shower will feel really good tomorrow!
Wednesday 12-22
Last day of NZ hiking was really easy. Only about 1.5 hours to reach the trail head. Poor Nick is definitely sick; he woke up and you could tell he felt terrible, so I was glad it was a short day. The rain was very light and we crossed a huge swinging bridge over the Waiau River, which was pretty cool.
When we got back to Te Anau, Nick
splurged on us and upgraded us to a room with linens and an unlocked bathroom. We treated ourselves to Chinese food for lunch and yummy Italian for dinner. In hindsight, this probably wasn’t a good idea since we’re slightly over budget for this crazy expensive country, but oh well; it was good. Once the weather cleared up in the evening, we went to the Te Anau Wildlife Center, where they have a rescue and rehab program for native birds. It was a nice place with huge open aviaries. We saw baby blue ducks getting ready for release; we saw the GIANT New Zealand pigeon. Seriously, this thing is HUGE; it’s the size of a chicken with pretty iridescent feathers and very feathery legs. We saw some local parrots & parakeets, including the infamous kea (they had hiking boots as enrichment toys in their enclosure ;o) We also had the luck of seeing pukekos and the rare takahe (a small blue goose, once thought to be extinct).
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Kathy
non-member comment
rain on the roof
I enjoy going to sleep listening to rain on a metal roof, too. Memories of good naps in Costa Rica. You are having some real challenges in your hiking! And what's wrong with slurping soup out of bowl? The photos are great! Looking forward to the next installment. Love, Kathy