Kepler Track

The Kepler Track is another of New Zealand’s Great Walks. It is one of three Great Walks in Fiordland and was built in the mid 80s to try to reduce the number of people hiking the other two main trails in the area. Unfortunately most people are like us and want to hike all three so the track did not do much to alleviate the number of walkers.

The Kepler Track is a loop walk that starts and ends at the control gates of Lake Te Anau just outside of the Te Anau township. The recommended way of walking the track is counterclockwise, but when we booked the track the only way available was clockwise. The walk is about 60 kilometers long, but parts of the track can be skipped if you take water taxis or get picked up by shuttles at alternative exits.

Our first day of hiking was in the rain from the control gates to the Moturau Hut. Most of the day was under the cover of beech forest so the rain got us wet, but not unpleasantly so. The walk follows the Waiau River for most of the day before heading past the Te Anau wetlands and to the shores of Lake Manapouri. The lakefront beach near the Moturau Hut had some incredible views of the sun setting over the mountains so we went to bed with that image in our head.

We woke up to pouring rain. It seemed that the drought that Fiordland had been experiencing for the last month was broken. Much of the hike was under the cover of beech forest, but about an hour before we reached the Iris Burn Hut we came out into a clearing that was the result of a large 1984 landslide. Whatever parts of us were still dry at that point got soaked so we felt (and probably looked) like a couple of drowned rats when we reached the hut. Fortunately the hut had a wood stove and some firewood so we lit the fire and got warmed up while eating our dinner.

On the third day of hiking we found out why clockwise is the suggested way to do the walk. Over our first two hours of hiking we gained 900 meters (2,950 feet) in elevation from 450 meters to 1,350 meters. The tree line ended at around 1,000 meters so from there on we were exposed to the wind and rain. While we were still on the side of the hill climbing it was not so bad, but once we reached to top of the ridge it felt like we could be blown away. Our raingear had seemed good at the start of the walk, but we soon found that it did not stand much of a chance against sideways rain. There were a few good views of the area before we got to the Hanging Valley Shelter but from there to the Luxmore Hut we did not get to see much but white stuff. Thankfully when we arrived at the Luxmore Hut the people who had come from the opposite way already had the fire going so we were able to quickly get out of our wet gear and warm up. The Luxmore Hut is above the tree line and in the afternoon there was a little bit of clearing so we got some terrific views.

The rain had seemed to let up over night and we could not hear any falling when we woke up. It was not until we looked out the window that we realized that precipitation had fallen all night in the form of snow. Even at 1,000 meters snow is quite unusual in January so it was a real treat to see the area covered in such a beautiful frosting. We felt for the people who had to do the alpine crossing in the snow as we headed down the hill to the relative warmth of the lakeside. It was an easy hike down and we shared it with a couple from Australia, which made it pass even more quickly. We were back at the control gates before we knew it and in the car on our way to Queenstown.

The reward at the end of the hike (Fergburger)