The Kepler Track

We drove into Te Anau with a couple of days to get ready for our next great walk, the Kepler Track. 

The town is nestled beneath the mountains along lake Te Anau. It's a Southland tourist hub and has the prices to match. To use the public toliet you have to fork over a dollar. To get eight minutes of hot water it's $5. It was time for laundry, but we went as cheaply as we could and ended up doing the drying mostly ourselves…

We parked along a road where our camping guide said we could go for free. Apparently this info is out of date because at 7am we were awoken by an aplogoetic DoC ranger prepared to charge us $200 for sleeping in the wrong place. We managed to get out of this by explaining our misinformation and best intentions.

The next night we stayed in the rain 30 min out of town at a Doc site called Henery Creek, on another part of the lake.

At 60 kilometers in length and up more than 1,000 meters in elevation, the Kepler is a lot more demanding than the Rakiura. Our bags were far too heavy on that track and we were determined to shave off a lot of weight this time. Literally, in the cases of the carrots. We did manage to cut out a lot of unneeded items and felt much better prepared.

The first day was the shortest in distance, but the greatest in elevation. It started out flat for the first hour.

Then it was up, up, up. At one point we passed a man coming down without a pack. A day hiker only. Unprompted, he decided to tell us we were about half way but yet to reach the steepest parts. Completely unhelpful for our morale as every step was only more hill and less oxygen.

We stopped for lunch when we finally did reach the bush line. From there the vegetation changed dramatically as we were all fully exposed to the wind and sun.

It felt extra good to catch sight of the Luxmore Hut where we could put down our packs and rest.

Compared to the huts on Stewart Island, this hut was huge with about 50 others joining us.

Situated on what felt like the top of the world, this was our favorite hut. It had enormous natural light and excellent views of the valley.

In the evening we had a talk by our hut warden explaining the safety and conditions of the trail. She waved around a dead, taxidermied stoat and explained to us the traps we see on the trail…

Stoats are weasel relatives that were introduced by some well-intended-yet-foolish early Europeans as a way to combat the rabbit population that had exploded since their introduction to NZ in the early days of settlement. There is a long, tragic history of species introduction in this country with horrible consequences. In the case of stoats, they don't seem to pay any attention to rabbits that they might enjoy in Europe because in NZ native bird eggs and birds themselves are much easier meals to steal. Since this threatens extinction of birds found no where else on the planet outside of NZ, there is a huge push to eliminate all the stoats. Evidentally this is a huge struggle because stoats have only humans as predators and they combat us by remaining pregnant until conditions are safe and impregnating their young before they even leave the nest.  This doesn't stop people from trying. There are stoat traps on almost every trail we've tramped in this country. On a display trap in the Luxmore hut there was a passage that read "the only good stoat is a dead stoat."

The second day of hiking was breath taking. We hiked along side Mt. Luxmore (1472m, 4830 feet) itself and then beyond along ridges connecting peaks and providing sweeping panoramas on all sides of the valleys and snow caps beyond us.

There was ice on the trails in the morning, but we were able to crunch through it without any slippage. We were extremely lucky with sunshine and low winds.

A "typical Kepler day," we were told, is generally more extreme and frightening. We were able to walk comfortably when on more-windy days trampers often crawl along the ridges and take the stairs literally by the seat of their pants. There have also been a handful of people rescued from the top suffering from hypothermia just this year. We were far better prepared than them in terms of gear, but again, we were really lucky with ideal conditions.

I was not exactly looking forward to going back down hill with all the majesty were taking in, but the trees were inviting and protective and we were soon enamored by them, too.

 The rainstorm we tramped trough in Stewart Island had hit the Kepler as well. This was the aftermath of a "slip" that washed the trees and topsoil violently down the mountain, leaving bare bedrock behind it. Huge trees cracked over each other like toothpicks and we had to scramble over the mess more than once to stick with the trail.

When we went to bed Alex said I was so conscious not to make noise to disturb our bunk mates, but once I was asleep I was the loudest one in the room. With age, evidentally, I am picking up the habit to snore when I am exhausted!

On the following morning it was raining. We strapped on our gaiters and pulled out our rain coats with some dismay, but we got so warm on the trail we stripped them off again and enjoyed the coolness of the drizzle. 

Like the slip we passed the day before, there was a much larger one that occurred just before the trail opened in January of 1984. They call it the "Big Slip." It has had almost 30 years to regrow, but the once-flooded meadow and earth-stripped hillside are still markedly different than the surrounding bush. 

On the third day we walked on lowland to lake Manapouri.

This hut is managed by Ranger Kay, our favorite hut warden. She is retired from working at the DoC visitor center and seems to have a lot of fun taking care of trampers who come through her home base at the Moturau Hut.

Alex had finished his book (and opted not to bring a second one because of the weight. The dedication!) so he studied up on sandflies in the afternoon. He tried to read outside, in fact, but the subject of his book prevented him from staying out there. As it turns out we had been moving through the highest concentration of sandflies in NZ most of the month. After reading this book Alex started us on a diet of garlic and vitamin B in hopes to ward them off more successfully.

This fantail seems to like Kay as well because it perches itself on the clothes line just outside the dining room and chirps away and flits about asking for attention. Fantails are obvious to spot because of their namesake. They fly erratically looking for insects in the air and seem to be interested in people. They come right up to us and open and close their fans, sounding friendly chirps. They are hard not to like.

Like faintails, tomtits are another bird that appear curious of people. They are less showy and more low key, but they seem just as friendly as they hop from branch to branch following us along the trail.

We finished the last day in just under 4 hours. It was an accomplishment to complete all 37+ miles and we were glad to see Patty again.

We have a lot more photos and adventures to catch up on. We have made it to the North Island all the way to the Coramandel Peninsula. We will be staying here for some time working at Te Moata. Hopefully in between retreat time and work time I will have chances to keep posting here. Stay tuned!

Once again, thanks for keeping up with us. We love your feedback. Big hugs or gros bisous depending on your continent ;)