I recently completed the last of the big three alpine/fiord land tracks. The Kepler track is Sixty kilometers and starts at the control gates in Te Anau. The walk initially brings you through another beautiful rainforest and after about a two to three hour climb, your reach the
Luxmore DOC hut that sits atop the bluff, providing panoramic views of the Te Anau Basin, the Takitimu Mountains, and the Snowdon and Earl Mountains. The first day was completed in a fine rain with low clouds obscuring the bottom half of the mountains, giving an eery perspective of the massive peaks protruding through like islands floating on a sea of white.
Although the weather forecast was somewhat daunting, those of us who did not cancel our hike were rewarded the next day. Although foggy and very windy at times, the views from the ridge line were quite spectacular and once again different from the other alpine walks. While the other peaks were made of black granite with snow capped peaks, these had olive and beige hues that blended with the tussock grasses and mountain flowers to create a completely different mountain experience.
After several hours of walking the ridge lines, you descend rapidly and steeply in to the valley and the forest below. I had been warned by my English friend Tony from the Milford hike that this section was known as the Kepler, crippler. The way my knees felt after about an hour were ample clarification of this deserved name. Once I arrived at the Iris Burn hut, I met an Englishman from Lancashire who had had a previous knee replacement. He was in a lot of pain.
The second to last day the rain was much more intense. Although I walked much of the hike in the forest, it was pouring down, and pack cover or not, my entire pack was still soaking wet.
This brings me to my forest adventure with my Dutch friend Frederik. Once I made it to the Moturau hut, I was greeted by Frederik who had stripped down to his speedo. "You swim in lake, yes?" I declined and made the universal sign for shivering. I watched as he ran down to the lake and jumped in. After about an hour, Frederik had dried off and noticed me playing with my camera. "Come in to the forest....we take photos together." Said Frederik. It was another one of those silent moments when I felt that all eyes were upon me. I wasn't sure what he meant by take photos together, but I put aside my distinctly heterosexual thought processes and embraced this new friendship with confidence and vigor. Soon I was following my new friend through the woods in search of fauna, birds and beautiful sunsets. He turned out to be a very cool young fellow,and talked enthusiastically about his girlfriend and his life in the Netherlands, but when we finally returned to the hut about an hour later, I had this mental image that we should be skipping hand in hand up to the porch.
Due to weather and transportation issues I returned to Te Anau the next day. It was then that I learned of the earthquake that had occurred earlier. I couldn't help think of the young doctor from Christchurch that had given me a ride to Westport from the Heaphy track and of my day spent in that beautiful city several weeks prior to the event. A beautiful city already trying to rebuild, struck once again.
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