The Many Roads to Te Anau

---

---

I arrived in Queenstown after a childhood fantasy of riding on the upper deck of a double-decker bus from Dunedin, which turned out to be quite nauseating on the NZed twisty roadways. Will was ready to party the last day of No-shave November away and eager to hitchhike out of town the next day. After a bit of goofing off roadside, three different friendly kiwis gave us lifts in the direction of Te Anau. The last of friendly soul was Dave, who showed us the local watering hole, The Redcliff, which was eerily similar to a smoke free Neptune’s. He took us for a session of wake boarding in the water that was barely above freezing and some exploration out on Lake Te Anau, Australasia’s largest fresh(ice)water lake.

To get out of the worthless routine of lifting Speight’s-weights to exhaustion at the Redcliff and to justify missing my planned itinerary (of a Bus to Christchurch then flight to Wellington watch a soccer game there and train up to Auckland to watch Rhys Darby and then fly to Sydney) we opted to try the Kepler Track. “Are you guys prepared for that?” was a question that somehow was never answered, but the grocery clerk did warn us of ensuing snowfall atop Mt Luxmore. Will, in his steel-toed boots and jandals and myself in running shoes and jeans headed unprepared into the wilderness of Fiordland for a 3 day detox-camp.

I didn’t sleep that night, for I was certain we wouldn’t make it or somehow have to turn back or get airlifted off or rolled down the mountains, but we got up early (10am) and made the best of it. We befriended some Canadians who lent us a pot to cook our instant noondles and some others who offered us headlamps to explore the Luxmore Caves. It was 3 days of exhaustion, in the way I hadn’t experienced in a while. Feeling good after the first day, we even opted to hike the extra bit up to the Luxmore Mt peak, claimed it and its beautiful view and continued on the long day and passed out before anyone could pass us on the trail. By the end of the 60km tramp up and around part of Lake Te Anau, we were exhausted but felt quite accomplished and even earned some respect from the trekking regulars.

Upon return Dave once again took us in for some delicious fresh lamb feast and then we had one last night with all the staff at Redcliff. We found out that night that Redcliff had actually been reviewed that night by top food critics and is notoriously a top restaurant in NZ. Ironically we spent 4 nights in there but never sampled any of the fare before we hitchhiked back to Queenstown the next day in the pouring rain to catch a flight to Sydney.

---

Photos

The Te Anau Crew
Will and Dave to my left, respectively

Attacking birds! Ahhhh!
We jokingly took this photo, then learned somebody an hour ahead of us got knocked off his feet by a swooping beak and tallons....

The Big Slip of '84
Last day of the Kepler Track, goofin around

Kepler Track Ridgeline
Most of the second day we hiked in the clouds/mist along the ridgeline

Department of Conservation in NZ maintains the world's best hiking trails!
I can't even imagine how they built all this! Heli lift staircases?

We're headin for the snow!
Beginning of Day 2

Te Anau Entrepeneur
Haha, either he trusts tourists enough to phone him before putting or biking or he lives across the street with binoculars....