OK, here is the journalling I did while we hiked on the Kepler Track. Feel free to not read this, as it won't be too exciting - nothing life shattering or out of the ordinary happened to us, but it might give you a feel of a typical Great Walk experience in NZ if you are curious. And, no I won't be able to get any pictures up until our next major city. No USB ports available for use here. Sorry...
Sunday, 13-Nov-05
We left our hostel at about 9:00 to start the 60km Kepler Track. This is a loop track and you can access it directly from town - which means no expensive shuttle! Yay! We of course had to stop for coffee, so official start time on the trail was 9:30. Te Anau sits right on Lake Te Anau (thus the name) and to get to the formal trail head you have to walk quite a ways around the lake. This took about an hour and was easy and scenic. A sculler rowed by on the calm water with snow capped peaks in the background. Very nice. Once we hit the formal trailhead we continued to follow the lake, but now through beech forest. After about an hour, we branched off and headed up. This is where we also encountered our first fellow trampers. What we quickly realized is this would be the same group of people we would be seeing a lot of as there is only one option of where to sleep each night (unless you want to walk an absurd amount of miles). This track has three huts all spaced about 6 hours apart from each other, and they don't allow camping at any of them, so we were forced to pay the big bucks of $40 per person per night. As it turns out this was a blessing in disguise. Being one of the ten Great Walks of New Zealand, the huts are quite well equipped, and the tracks very well maintained, thus the bigger expense - and we were glad for this as the first night was a cold one.
So up the hill we headed, making quite nice time and staying ahead of the pack of people behind us. The weather was nice for the first half of the day - partly cloudy and a comfortable temperature. Just before breaking treeline, however, it started to rain. And a cold hard rain at that. Luckily we had only about a half hour to go to get to the hut (this is where I was saying, thank goodness we had to stay in a hut!). All of our gear was good in teh rain except our pants, where soaked through immediately. Which will be OK in the tropics but not up in high alpine areas. At any rate, we got to the hut, Luxmore Hut, which had great views of Lake Te Anau and the mountains when the clouds moved out of the way. The hut was big - sleeping 55 people, and with a large kitchen area and gas cookers and water provided as well as a wood stove. The bunk rooms themselves are not warm at all, and so everyone spent the majority of the evening huddled in the big living area reading books, playing cards and visiting. There was about 20 of us in total.
Here's a look at the first hut we stayed at on that rainy evening:
After warming up with some hot chocolate, we went out again to explore a nearby cave. Nothing spectacular about the cave, just that it was a bit of an adventure to walk through. It had a sizable stream running through it and some tight squeezes to get through, but no dramatic stalactites or mites. We only went in about 1/4 of a mile because we didn't want to get totally wet and dirty from climbing around on the ground through the tighter spots. Went back to the hut then, and made dinner, played cards with some fellow hikers, and turned in for what was a restless nights sleep. We both ended up sleeping in every article of clothing we brought and never quite got warm.
Monday, Nov-14-05
We were in no hurry to get up this morning. It was much warmer this morning downstairs in the living area as the sun was streaming in. Yay! Sun! After listening to and watching the rain last night it was great to see the sun and partially clear skies this morning, as this was to be the most scenic day of the hike. The forecast looked good (there is a ranger stationed at each hut and they provide the day's weather forecast each morning at 8:30). Although the entire forecast things is funny here. NZ has proved to be more unpredictable in terms of weather than the Pacific NW. Regardless, everyone in the hut, huddles around the board and reads it like it were the Gospel - I guess any sense of hope of a nice day helps the morale. It is just so rarely correct, and changes so drastically each day, it is almost a wonder we bother to look at all.
After all that, the forecast was right on for the day. We had lovely weather (which really just means no rain). It was cloudy most of the day, but not enough to block our views. The whole walk today was up in the alpine region and followed several ridges providing breathtaking view after breathtaking view of the fiords of Lake Te Anau and all the surrounding mountains. We took our time knowing the weather was good, and that we had plenty of time (the 6 hours between huts is very conservative hiking time). So we went up every side track, took lots of long breaks and still made it down to the next hut (Iris Burn Hut) by 4:00.
Here are two shots of the ridge lines we walked on and views from the ridgeline:
This hut sits closer to the valley floor, at a much lower elevation than the previous night, so it was much warmer. Although with the lower elevation, comes the infamous NZ biting sandflies (of which we were unprepared to deal with on the Abel Tasman hike). Plenty of DEET this time, and we had the hut to escape from them in. Another relaxing evening of book reading and eating. Although we realized we were too scimpy on our food this hike, and had to eat very slowly and relish every bite. We might actually shed a few pounds on this one....shocking.
Tuesday, 15-Nov-05
Very easy walk today. The forecast called for afternoon showers, so we got up early and walked relatively fast to avoid them. Of course they never showed up. The walk was just down the river valley, so it was quite flat and pleasant. We came up to Lake Manapouri, then headed back north towards Te Anau to complete the loop. We arrived at the hut early (at 2:00), and really got lots of relaxing in. Keith even took a nap. Can't believe how much we have been sleeping lately! This hut sits right on Lake Manapouri and has absolutely gorgeous views.
Wednesday, 16-Nov-05
Hiking out today. Another very flat and easy walk.
Here's a look at the beech forest that we spent many an hour walking through on our way out:
You have the option of stopping early and catching a shuttle back to town, but we walked the whole thing following another river, and made it back to town by 1:30, ready for a hot shower and a big meal. Great hike.
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