Sun, 3rd Feb: Day 1 – The Kepler Track, 60km Great Walk over 4 days!!!!!
Encompassing the best of everything from the shores of Lake Te Anau and Lake Manapouri and their peaceful beech forest backdrops to the exposed alpine tussock lands, the Kepler Track has something for everyone. Ideal for entry-level tramping, this 60 km circuit is enjoyed over 3 or 4 days. Well-maintained tracks lead us away from the everyday world to sidle around the rocky peak of Mt Luxmore, hike along ridges and down into the lush Iris Burn valley. Spacious huts offer stunning alpine panoramas and cosy evenings after our day’s exertions. The Kepler Track is an incredible wilderness experience right on Te Anau’s doorstep and a fantastic opportunity to experience the most accessible of Fiordland’s Great Walks.

Day 1: Kepler Track Car Park to Luxmore Hut / 13.8 km, 5–6 hours
The track starts with a pleasant walk through beech forest along the shore of Lake Te Anau, the largest body of fresh water in Australasia, to Brod Bay.

From here a challenging climb leads through forest, passing under impressive limestone bluffs, before emerging above the bush line to panoramic views of the Te Anau Basin and surrounding mountains.

Luxmore Hut (1085 metres) is a 45 minute walk from the bush line.

Mon, 4th Feb: Day 2: Luxmore Hut to Iris Burn Hut / 14.6 km, 5–6 hours
We start our day on top of the world. Departing Luxmore Hut, it is chucking down and it is so overcast.

However, we get ready in our waterproofs and join the track which climbs to a ridge just below Mt Luxmore, with stunning views across the south fiord of Lake Te Anau to the Murchison Mountains—home of the rare, flightless takahē.

From here it winds its way to the Hanging Valley Shelter, before descending through a series of zigzags to the Iris Burn Hut.

It is up here where we see the Kea for the first time flying around. The Kea is a large species of parrot found in forested and alpine regions of the South Island of New Zealand. About 48 cm (19 in) long, it is mostly olive-green with a brilliant orange under its wings and has a large, narrow, curved, grey-brown upper beak. The Kea is the world’s only alpine parrot. Now uncommon, the Kea was once killed for bounty due to concerns by the sheep-farming community that it attacked livestock, especially sheep. It received full protection only in 1986.

Kea are known for their intelligence and curiosity, both vital to their survival in a harsh mountain environment. Kea can solve logical puzzles, such as pushing and pulling things in a certain order to get to food, and will work together to achieve a certain objective. We are pleased to meet these guys on our Great Walk 🙂

A welcoming sight after a day on the tops, our hut is situated in a large tussock clearing. We pick our bunks and freshen up before sorting our packet tea out.

As happened last night, the Ranger here gives us our briefing in the evening and encourages us to listen for kiwi calling at night – and hear them we certainly do ! So they are about!

Tue, 5th Feb: Day 3: Iris Burn Hut to Moturau Hut / 16.2 km, 5–6 hours
Today the ever-changing scenery starts with beech forest. The track climbs over a low saddle, then down past the big slip of 1984 to Rocky Point.

Below Rocky Point the track winds through a gorge and lowland beech and podocarp forest, before reaching the shore of beautiful Lake Manapouri.

Moturau Hut is situated beside a beautiful beach, with stunning views of the lake. It is by far the best location for exhausted trekkers to spend their night on the track. We have a lovely evening relaxing here before watching a stunning sunset over the lake. Neil gets a fire going on the beach and a group of trekkers join us for an hour or so sharing stories before it’s ‘lights out’. An amazing evening 😀

Wed, 6th Feb: Day 4: Moturau Hut to the Kepler Track Car Park / 15.5 km, 4–5 hours
The last day is a moderate stroll through beech forest, crossing a unique and fragile wetland. The track then follows the Waiau River terrace to the swing bridge at Rainbow Reach where we meet the shuttle van which takes us back to where we started at the Lake Te Anau control gates and the Kepler Track car park.

Wow, what an amazing effort and we congratulate each other on this remarkable achievement. We carried all our equipment over the whole 60km! Neil was my inspiration and kept me going right until the end – if he was able to carry his big rucksack (with pots, pans, utensils, 4 days food and clothing) then I had no reason to grumble about mine (day pack with lunch and snacks, the ipad and camera). He did a tremendous job and we both felt the trek would be challenging enough without the rucksacks so we had a lot to celebrate!

It’s worth mentioning at this stage that throughout the last few days we have not seen much wildlife. We’ve seen dead deer being airlifted out of the forest (pest control) and heard birds but apart from the robin that joined us for lunch one day and the Kea mountain parrots all we spotted was the two fellows below …

– this is what we did!

– good or what!

We wasted no time in offloading our baggage and jumping in the car to commence our 3hr journey to Queenstown – and another stunning journey it was!!!!

On arrival at Queenstown we dumped our luggage at the backpackers and forced ourselves to stay awake – we freshened up laundered all our walking gear and put it out to dry before heading down into the town.

– view from our accommodation!

Queenstown, wow, what can we say! It blew us away …. the backpackers is high on the hillside looking down into the town and it really is spectacular. It is Waitangi Day today … and a national holiday … and the celebrations can be heard up where we are. It really is vibrant. The town is built around an inlet called Queenstown Bay on Lake Wakatipu, a long thin Z-shaped lake formed by glacial processes, and has spectacular views of nearby mountains such as The Remarkables, Cecil Peak, Walter Peak and just above the town; Ben Lomond and Queenstown Hill.

– our room

– remarkable Remarkables!

Queenstown is now known for its commerce-oriented tourism, especially adventure and ski tourism. A resort town, it is popular with young international, NZ and Australian travellers alike and is a centre for adventure tourism. Having a reputation for being the ‘Adventure Capital of the World’ with a vibrant nightlife scene, popular activities during the day include skiing and snowboarding, jet boating, whitewater rafting, bungy jumping, mountain biking, skateboarding, tramping, paragliding, sky diving and fishing.

We soak up the holiday atmosphere on our walk around and it’s not long before we discover the Irish Pub, Póg Mahones 😀 and we soon settle ourselves at a table outside in this beautiful lakefront location and soak up some more stunning alpine scenery. Built in 1998, it quickly became a Queenstown icon. The Kiwi & Irish owners had the pub designed and built in Ireland itself, then shipped, lock, stock & barrel, to NZ. We are soon relaxing with a couple of pints of cold Guinness and a rewarding meal – steaks on a hot stone! Heaven after the meals of the last 4 days.

Once the sun has gone down we walk further along the bay and stop for refreshment at the Bathhouse Tapas Bar and Restaurant – another place with a little bit of history attached to it ! The restaurant is housed in an original victorian bathhouse built in 1911 – now a bustling cafe restaurant, The Bathhouse is a far cry from its original incarnation to commemorate the coronation of King George V. It began as a fashionable bathhouse, complete with changing stalls, jetty and diving platforms but was later abandoned, vandalised and flooded to become derelict. Threatened with demolition in the 1980s, the structure was eventually saved, renovated and reborn as an architects’ studio and then a restaurant. By the late 70s, the building was dilapidated and needed major restoration. The council had planned to demolish it in 1988 but the Department of Conservation and the Historic Places Trust replaced rotten timber.

It is here that we peruse the many leaflets we picked up earlier, and form a plan of action for the next couple of days. We are not going to fill the days with activities, we are just going to soak up the atmosphere here, relax and take our time in finalising the details of our itinerary for the coming weeks and make the most of the backpackers’ location on the hillside. Another walk back to the wharf and we return to Póg Mahones for a night cap and some live music. Then it’s off home to crash for much needed zzzzzz’s. That in itself was a luxury – a double bed in our own room – bliss !

Thu, 7th Feb: Backpackers: Decco, Queenstown
We wake up late this morning at 10.00am. Everything seems to have caught up with us so we spend the rest of the morning chilling out in the lounge area and make use of the free internet which is very good here.

Neil heads off to drop the hire car off at the airport and I arrange to meet him at Flights Direct at mid-day. Once a the airport though he is told that there is a place in the town where he could have returned the car to !!! Not amused, Neil returns to Queenstown with the car – a wasted hour! I meet him at Flights Direct and we go through our plans for the next few weeks and leave the information with them so that they can put something in place for us. We arrange to return later that afternoon to see what they have come up with.

Neil really really really wants to go fishing … he has been wanting to for a while now but we haven’t had the time! Therefore we call into the wharf and book him on a 4hr fishing trip on the lake in the morning and head to Skyline Queenstown!

Bungee

Views

Toboggan

A KFC and a fishing trip booking later and we return to Flights Direct who have a perfect itinerary for us and we sign on the dotted line! YAY, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand here we come, lol. Nervous and excited much 😀

Back at Decco, we while away the evening by having a good session catching up with folk back home via facetime and skype.

Fri, 8th Feb: Backpackers: Decco, Queenstown
Neil goes off fishing this morning whilst I continue to make use of the quality free internet here. I have a good chat with Mum before catching up with the blog before walking into the town to pick up our itinerary and e-tickets from Flights Direct 🙂 I then head off to meet Neil from his fishing trip and am eager to see how he has done. As I sit on the jetty, I see the 100 year old coal fired steamship; the TSS Earnslaw, which provides tourist trips on the lake. It is a lovely vessel but the mucky smoke it spews out is not attractive – definitely an example of a 100 year old smoker!!!!!

Neil’s boat pulls in and he’s had a good morning 😀 After sailing out on a 30min drive to the mouth of the river they set about fishing. Neil has caught two rainbow trouts (about 3lbs each) and, as he is going to eat them, the skipper kills and fillets the fish for him. There is a restaurant on the wharf called ‘Pub Wharf’ which, for $15 will prepare and cook the fish and serve it with salad and chips. We are hungry and it is lunchtime so we go straight over and hand the fish over.

Neil says it was amazing, so fresh – from lake to plate in 4 hours!!!! The restaurant prepares the second trout for him and we take this back to the hostel to cook tomorrow.

Sat, 9th Feb: Kiwi Airport Hotel, Auckland
We wake and pack and check out at 10.00am. As our flight is not until this afternoon, we spend a few hours back in the lounge where I use the internet to load as many pictures as I can onto the blog – something I haven’t been able to do for ages as the internet has not been good enough. Neil cooks and shares his second trout with a guy from Brazil – a chef no less – before we head off to the airport for the first of our two flights to Cairns.

Check in and boarding go very smoothly as do the flight and the onward shuttle to the Airport Motel. Arriving at 7.00pm we are here only for a few hours as we need to be up at 4.00am to return to the airport for our onward flight to Cairns! It’s a bit of a luxury for us, lol – we have our own bathroom and even have a tv, pmsl!!! We shower, tuck into a very nice takeaway curry from the Motel Restaurant and lie on the bed watching tv (told you!!! a luxury!!!) before drifting off to sleep for the last time in this amazing country.