The Kepler Track

http://www.doc.govt.nz /Explore/002~Tracks-and -Walks/Great-Walks/Kepler -Track/index.asp  

     WOW!  If you only have time for one tramp in New Zealand, we recommend the Kepler Track!  I wanted to turn around and go right back on the Routeburn, so it is difficult for me to now report that the Kepler is every bit as spectacular, if not more so!  I only wish that we could have the Milford to compare also!  It is still booked every time we check and tomorrow we will move on to Stewart Island the the Rakiura Track.

     The Kepler is a 60 kilometer (40 miles?) circuit that is usually tramped over four days camping or staying in three huts.  This time we REALLY lightened our packs and also stayed in the huts.  We took a water taxi across Lake Te Anau to Brod Bay Thursday morning at 8:30 AM.  It was a beautiful, clear day.  We saw a helicopter carrying out red deer.  The red deer are imports that are eating all the food and destroying the habitat for the local indigenous birdlife (like kiwis) so they are being extracted to deer farms or killed.  The people here would very much like to reclaim their lands as they once were without the mammals that have been brought in over time.

     Thursday's tramp started out from the beach with a two hour climb through the bush (rainforest)  up, Up, UP!  The track is so well maintained however, that it was almost a stroll through the woods!  Tiring, but beautiful as the Kiwi "bush" is indeed lush with ferns and moss covered beech trees.  The story goes that they hired 240 "troubled teens" to make this trail.  They built the track up over or cut through the roots, boulders and rocks to leave a fine walking trail that is often wide enough for two people to tramp side by side.  Limestone bluffs emerge at the bushline and there is a marvelous view out over the Te Anau Basin:  Lake Te Anau and the town of Te Anau.  These are the Takitimu Mountains, the Sowden Mountains, and the Earl Mountains -- high and rugged.   We ate or lunch gazing out.

     45 minutes later and we arrived at the Luxmore Hut.   On the boat we had met two other US couples starting out so we met up with them again at the hut and selected beds together in an area that had platforms with four mattresses up and four down, 16 to a room.   We called this area the "early to bed, often to rise and pee, geriatrics ward."  I needed a lower berth with my wrist.  I was able to use my walking stick a little today -- am exercising my wrist and hand regularly to get back full use ASAP.  These huts have regular toilet facilities, sinks for "ablution" (personal hygiene) and kitchens with burners.  One only has to bring their pots and foods.  Passing the afternoon, "happy hour" and cooking dinner at the hut is quite a social experience (55 people this first night)!  Meals start our more elaborate on the first night and digress to freeze dried stuff by the last!  Some people actually did carry beer, wine and other liquors up there! 

     The US couples: Mike and Linda, early 50s, who are spending 6 months in the US alternating with 6 in NZ; Bob and Sarah, retired New Yorkers in their late 60s; and Saree and Matt, youngsters (mid 20s) who came to NZ to work when they graduated college and now are on a four month "holiday" before returning to Minneapolis, became great pals.  Denny went with them to explore the Luxmore caves but I could not go as it meant crawling through tight spaces.  Denny and Mike went in the farthest, of course!  They only turned around when the passages began to get really wet and low.  I sat admiring the view, reading, and chatting.   Also traveling the circuit with us were several young, fun German kids, a few from England, a fun Scottish couple, etc.  Great travel stories are shared!  We also learned a lot about what to take, how to cook, etc.  Mostly we were "right on" as a result of Denny's experience with all this!  Our food combinations were usually better tasting than the freeze dried packets!  We both put in ear plugs and I took a sleeping pill and we were "out"!  If the others were nosiy, we did not hear them and were not disturbed.

     Friday we left the Luxmore Hut, again with great weather, climbing first to the top of Mount Luxmore (without our packs).  Talk about panoramic views!  Then we started in on the most spectacular tramp I could never have imagined!  There must have been two to two and a half hours of alpine tramping right along the ridges, just like the picture on the link above shows.  The views were from Lake Te Anau and that set of mountains across to Lake Manapouri and its.  Breathtaking!  It is not a walk for the faint of heart though, those who are acrophobic or suffer from vertigo would not be happy.  Landslides sometimes have taken the trail away.  If you let your mind wander into the possibility of tripping or slipping over either side...DON'T!

     Anyway, the downhill too was amazing -- a series of steps -- several hundred, but who counted.  Evidently the ridge line was too steep for safe descents so these kids built in steps.  All I can say is that I would NEVER do the Kepler from the opposite direction having to climb up all those steps AND the 91 "zigzags" (switchbacks) that finally brought us down through the bush again and into the second hut for our second night 7 hours later.  The Iris Burn Hut is located in a Hanging Valley in a "tussock" (long grasses) clearing and is equally spectacular especially as some heard kiwis in the night -- no sightings though.  Again we were able to get in ahead of the pack (the elderly are up early and walking in the cool mornings -- the younger set seems to sleep in and walk in the afternoons) and select good sleeping quarters.  There was less time to luxuriate, but a whole lot of sharing about how spectacular the tramp was!  We ate and were all in bed early -- TIRED OUT!

     Saturday's tramp was about as different as it could be!  Leaving the Iris Burn Hut we  descended for five hours through beech forest, riverside clearings, crossing and re-crossing over bridges and swingbridges, over a low saddle, and through a gorge into the river flats near the mouth of the Iris Burn River at Lake Manapouri to the Moturau Hut.  What a fun walk!  Yes, tiring, but also elating!  The moss draped beech trees are unreal!  The birds singing and especially the tuis overhead and the robins hopping about our feet!  What a delight!  I think we like the Kepler Track best because it is, quite simply, a joy to tramp!

     Saturday night was a fun hut evening as there was lots of social time and everyone was eating up the rest of their food, sharing, and exclaiming about how great the walk had been!   This is the hut that Rosie and Alistair's daughter, Tarah (19), is the hut warden.  After her evening talk she sat with us and shared tramping stories.  She first "walked" the Kepler at 8 years old!  As she was leaving she invited us over to her cabin and then offered us a HOT SHOWER.  Need I say more?  PERFECTION!  She has a rather tough and isolated job, but the accommodation is quite good: a fairly good sized cabin that looks out on the lake,  a livingroom/kitchen area complete with a frig and stove/oven, a private bathroom and two bed bedroom. 

     Sunday was a short one and a half hour stroll out through the bush and over several long swingbridges to Rainbow Reach.  There you can either catch a bus back to Te Anau or walk three more hours around Lake Te Anau to the town.  DUH!  We took the bus and are "home" again at Rosie's with our showers taken, clothes washed and drying on the line!  Four beautiful days, how lucky we were!  This is a tramp I would LOVE to repeat (Luxmore to Moturau only)!

     And the fun goes on as tomorrow morning we are off to Stewart Island -- and kiwis (the birds) we hope!