Kepler Track

On Monday 23. May it was time for one of the greatest hiking adventures of New Zealand, the 60km long Kepler Track. So I got up at 5am on Monday morning and left Dunedin together with my good mates Guido and Sofia. After about three-and-a-half hours of driving we arrived at the DOC visitor center in Te Anau and booked our tickets for the two huts along the track. Additionally we also rented a GPS tracker, or beacon as they call it here, for the unlikely event of an emergency. Now we were ready for a three day long adventure that none of us would forget any time soon! So here are some impressions from one of my most exciting and most stunning adventures so far.

Guido, Sofia and me at the start of the 60km long Kepler Track.

Map of the Kepler Track (© Department of Conservation New Zealand, 2016). We started from the carpark (between Te Anau and Moturau Hut) and went to Iris Burn on the first day (22 km). On the second day we went from Iris Burn to Luxmore (15 km) and then from Luxmore back to the car-park on our last day (23 km).

The first part of the track where a boardwalk led us through a swamp.

The track soon left the swamp and led us to the shore of the beautiful Lake Manapouri.

What followed after the swamp and the lake was a 20k hike through a lush temperate rainforest. We reached the Iris Burn Hut, our hut for the night, at around 5:30pm simultaneously with the onset of dusk.

On day two the steep part of the track began and we had to climb from 180 meters above sea-level to over 1500.

Soon we encountered the first snow-covered ferns.

As we climbed up higher and higher into the mountains the path got covered in snow more and more. 

After about two hours of hiking we reached the treeline and were greeted by staggering views of snow-covered mountains surrounding us from every direction. 

Selfie en-route to the top of the Kepler Track.

The snow-covered path purled with icicles. 

Up and up we went, until we reached the mountain ridge.

180 degree panorama from the ridge. 

The path is coming up from the left and then leading deeper into the mountains over the top of the ridge.

Time for some selfies

We could not have wished for a better or more beautiful day!

High above the clouds

After spending at least half an hour at this fantastic lookout point we finally managed to unsnap and continued our journey deeper into the mystical mountains of the Fjordland National Park.

Sofia in front of one of the in-numerous staircases leading up to the top. Oh, by the way, yes, she hates stairs more than anything else!

View back to where we came from. Yesterday we had marched through the valley down there and today we had climbed up about 1000 metres of altitude until we had reached the ridge.

Snow, snow, snow 

At around 1 pm we reached an emergency shelter and decided it was a good time to invigorate ourselves with some lunch.

What a nice spot to have some lunch!

View from the top of the hill behind the littler emergency shelter onto Lake Te Anau and the surrounding mountains.

The journey across the ridge went on and on....

That´s Lake Te Anau in the background

Sofia and her walking stick she picked up yesterday

Dusk approached after a long but absolutely stunning day in the mountains. But we still had about half an hour of hiking ahead of us until we would reach Luxmore Hut, our place for the night.

Lake Te Anau in the last light of the day. 

Beautiful colours adorned the sky as we descended from the top of the ridge down to Luxmore Hut.

Day 3: what a gorgeous sunrise above the couds 

Luxmore Hut in the first light of the day

A quick morning selfie above the clouds before we got on our way 

Vast tussock-fields along the way

Soon we reached the end of the tussock-fields and it was time to descend to the bottom of the mountain. Bye, bye beautiful weather above the clouds!

And back into the forest

A good six hours later we reached the car-park and completed one of our most exciting adventures here in New Zealand so far. All in all I can say the Kepler Track is well worth a visit! To end this blogpost I´ll give you another picture from the beautiful sunrise at Luxmore Hut and a video of our hike: