The Kepler Track

 On Wednesday, December 17, Alan and I took a bus from Christchurch to Te Anau. From Te Anau, it was only a short shuttle ride to the start of the Kepler Track. The Kepler is a loop, 60 km in length. Due to where the shuttles pick up and drop off, we actually only hiked 50 km.

We started at the Control Gates of Lake Te Anau dam, with all the folks from our particular shuttle. We would see some of them again, if not hiking the entire route with them. From the Control Gates, we walked 5.6 km to Brod Bay. This was a fairly flat walk through beech forest.

After lunch by the bay, we began the climb of 1000 meters over 8.2 km in distance up to Luxmore Hut. One of the highlights of this climb were limestone bluffs along a portion of the ascent.

We continued climbing higher, finally ascending through the bush line.  Off and on the mountain was completely clouded over, but sometimes we had views like this of the clouds over Lake Te Anau.

As usual, our remaining wakeful time at the Hut consisted of eating snacks, then dinner and hot chocolate. Alan enjoyed talking to people while Gracyn enjoyed reading her book.

On Friday morning we climbed another 400 m, then took a 10 minute side path to the peak of Mt. Luxmore.

The scenery continued to be lovely, with intermittent cloud cover washing over us. The trail lost that newly gained elevation and climbed once more. We were walking along the spine of the mountains, we the ground falling away to each side.

After several hours' walking we made it to the Handing Valley Shelter, where we ate lunch with some other trampers out of the wind and occasional rain. From there we had another half hour along the alpine section, then we started our descent back into the bush. We wound down and down and down, finally reaching Iris Burn Hut, after 14.6 km. (It felt longer. Perhaps it was.)

On Saturday, our last full day, it was forecast to rain all day. We walked through ferns and forest until our lunch stop at Rocky Point Shelter. After lunch the rain seemed to become more intense, and we were soaked when we reached Motorau Hut, along Lake Manapouri.

Alan started a fire in the Hut fireplace, and all the hikers were moving their clothes nearby to get them dry for the next day. Just before dinner time, the skies cleared and folks began to lay their clothing outside to dry also. After dinner Alan, Matt and Alex (new friends who attend Notre Dame) worked on getting a fire going on the beach. Gracyn was only in it for the marshmallows, provided by the Hut Ranger. We were able to see a beautiful sunset. Then, just when the fire got going, the rain started up again.

On Sunday, we walked 6.0 km to meet the shuttle, gladly headed for showers and food that hasn't been dehydrated. It was a beautiful walk.