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Published: March 17th 2013
Arrive in Queenstown
Awesome weather on 23 Feb.Note: more photos appear at the bottom of this page
The Kepler Track (61 kilometres encompasses the best of everything - from the lakeside beech forests and alpine tops, to hearing kiwi at Irisburn Hut. Travelling along mountain tops for 12 kilometres, the Kepler Track is an alpine adventure with stunning panoramas. The walk took us from the shores of Lake Te Anau to spend a night high above the clouds in an alpine tussock land. The track then traverses the ridge lines of the Kepler Mountains, down to beautiful Lake Manapouri, before leading us back through the peaceful beech forest, right back to where we started in Te Anau!
M and K were back in NZ to celebrate their engagement and had the great idea of organising a 4 day tramp on one of NZ's Great Walks - the Kepler Track. In total 11 of us set out on the adventure.
Highlights from the trip are as follows:
23 Feb - Flew down to Queenstown a few days in advance of the rest of the group to do some sightseeing in Queenstown. Perfect late summer weather, with not a cloud in the sky, the sky opened
up in all directions and bathed the town and lake in a warm blue light. I strolled the upmarket alleys and shops and lounged at a cafe on the edge of the clear blue Lake Wakatipu. In the afternoon I took the gondola up Skyline viewpoint, where I could take in nearly the full extent of the glacial valley formed lake Wakatipu and enjoy the summer outdoor adventure activities that Queenstown is known for- bungy jumping, paragliding, lugers and an assortment of watercraft racing around the lake far below. While at Skyline I met a couple from of all places my hometown – Vancouver, Washington – we’ll stay in contact as they live just minutes from where my mom lives. I shared some sake with some a group at a Japanees sushi bar later that evening.
24 Feb – Took the shuttle bus to Te Anau, the fields were a golden brown of summer with the random white sheep dotted into the landscape. Our group met up for drinks at the Mouse Bar in Te Anau for celebratory drinks before the start of our four day tramp. That evening we distributed the food and supplies for the next few
days among our packs – a great deal of repacking and consolidating occurred in that two hour period. We wrapped the evening up with a surprise birthday cake for me – Thanks M, K, N, K and L for the impromptu party!
25 Feb – We get an early start as we have 7hr hike in front of us and we want to take advantage of the cooler morning temperatures and fog/cloud cover that will burn off by 11am. Our shuttle bus dropped us off at Kepler Carpark, from there we setoff for Brod Bay and then upwards to Luxmore Hut. The first two hours the group spent chatting as the trail was relatively flat and the dense forest, while interesting, gave us no views of any particular note. At Brod Bay we stopped briefly for a snack, toilet break and mental preparation for the 5 hour, 750metre elevation change climb.
A couple hours into the steep climb the group was getting spread out and hungry as it was around 1pm and the trail was too narrow to stop for a lunch break – finally we reached the limestone bluffs (marking the halfway point of the steep climb)
where we threw off our packs and looked out over the valley floor below – surveying the landscape that we’d traversed below. With our thirst and hunger cravings satisfied we setoff for the next milestone – the bush/treeline.
As we broke through the treeline we were treated with panoramic views of the Te Anau Basisn, Takitimu Mountains and the Snowdon and Earl Mountains. The trail now passed through open fields of tussock grasses before we arrived at the Luxmore Hut. Our first dinner we ate like kings as K did such a great job of organising a group dinner. Most everyone turned in early as we were all feeling the effect of packing 15kg packs up the mountain.
26 Feb – I woke early to take photos of the sunrise. We setoff around 10am for another six hour hike to Iris Burn Hut. The track climbed gradually from the hut to a ridge just below the summit of Mount Luxmore. Most of us left our packs on the side of the trail and made our way up to the Luxmore summit peak (1472 metres above sea level). The wind was whipping around up here and chilled our fingers
and exposed skin, but the views were worth it. We had an unexpected visitor – a kea, alpine parrot who was very curious in our gear and was looking for a free food hand out.
From hear the track ahead sidles, climbs and follows a ridge system for about three hours to the Hanging Valley Shelter, where we lunched and were visited by three more curious kea. The ridgeline trails were occasionally dizzying for some in the group as on either side was a steep drop down into a valley below.
After lunch we started an extremely steep descent back down into the forested valley bellow and to the Iris Burn Hut. Along this trail there were a number of slides where the heavy rain early in the season send millions of tons of earth, rock, vegetation and trees slipping down into the valley below – it was incredible to see the extremely white rock left behind where the soil had been stripped away.
We arrived at Iris Burn Hut tired and with sore feet – we were treated to a dip in a very cold stream that relieved our aching feet.
That night M, M
and I went out kiwi hunting with torches that projected red light on the trail in front of us. All we managed to find after an hour long hike was a rather odd German traipsing through the dark forest without a light. Sleep was difficult through the night as the hut got extremely stuffy and hot.
27 Feb – Today was a relaxing gentle walk through gently sloping forests out to Lake Manapouri. I went ahead of most the group to grab 11 bunks at our next destination.
Upon arriving at Moturau Hut it was a race with an older couple to get the best beds. I got to the room first and started throwing out articles of clothing and food to hold the best located beds. The couple were going to end up sleeping in the set of bunks near me, but I could see the woman was extremely agitated with her husband and I heard her mumble about not wanting to sleep anywhere near me as she suspected me to be one of the heavy snorers from the last hut. She got a few other hikers in the hut a bit excited as they eyed me
up and down trying to determine if I was a heavy snorer… in the end the couple took a set of beds at the far end of the hut and I was left feeling unjustly maligned. Snoring had been an entertaining conversation amongst our group and I think we’d all determined some of us did contribute to some light snoring, but nothing extreme. Well that night I got ultimate justice. It turned out the couple had unknowingly set themselves up right next to the two trampers that were the really solid snorers… That night, the hottest night in a hut, the two guys snored nearly solid through the whole night… such that nearly everyone was woken up at one time or another – the grumpy woman from the night before was clearly not happy in the morning as it appeared that she must have spent the whole night scowling at the snoring trampers.
28 Feb – Our last morning on the trail was a quick two hour hike to where the shuttle bus was to meet us at 10am. We had to push it so that we wouldn’t miss the bus otherwise we would have had to wait for
four hours for the next one. That afternoon I took the shuttle all the way back to Queenstown where some of us caught up for celebratory drinks and dinner.
29 Feb – M, K, C, N and I enjoyed our last few hours in Queenstown on a lake cruise – where we got shushed by some of the passengers as they thought we were chatting much too loud for a cruise, ha ha… The flight back to AKL was uneventful and I gladly crashed on the couch when I got home. I enjoyed every minute of the last week, but my feet (especially my right ankle) were sore and appreciated a more relaxed pace.
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