Kepler Track - Part One

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Our main motive for coming to Te Anau was a well-known tramping (hiking) destination called the Kepler Track. The route is 60km round trip, and is usually done in four days. Every year the route is run by people undertaking the Kepler challenge, i think the record time is four hours or so!

We set out in the morning from the DOC (department of conservation) office and began our journey. The first section lead us through some forest. The forest was packed with ferns - you start to see why the fern symbol is often used to represent NZ! Hanging lichen was new to me too, it gave the trees a very atmospheric 'ye olde' / lord of the rings feel.

On our way we met up with another tramper, Alex, who grew up in the Uk and emigrated to NZ. We realised we'd been on the same bus from Queenstown the day before. The forest path wound up a steep hill until we came out onto clear heath above, with excellent views around.

We spent the night at a Trampers hut. It was pretty well equipped, with toilet, running water, gas stoves etc... but most importantly, excellent views of the valley and lake. It was a pretty big place, accommodating 50 people or so. We arrived in the afternoon with plenty of time, and decided to take a look at some near by caves.

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Comments

[Chris bennett]

Are you in Australia?
Nice one, what happened to college? Looks like a fantastic place. I've got a blog or two myself y'know. http://oakleytransitionsironmanteam.blogspot.com/ http://www.opticianonline.net/blogs/big%2Doptometry%2Dblog/

[unc]

you'll have to challenge Chris and his 'iron maidens' to run the route in double quick time!