The Kepler Track

Another of New Zealand's Great Walks this time in Fjordland, down on the south west coast. We said earlier the Naked Bus let us down so we had to get another on the spot. Thankfully the local tourist info site were very helpful. Queenstown was our hub to gain access to the fjords and wow what a busy place. Pretty laid back though. 

The journey through to Te Anau from Queenstown takes around 2.5 hours, the buses don't travel so fast here and the roads are single lane. Our first days walk had us stop by the lake at Brod Bay. We seem to have spent many nights either next to the sea or a lake! The following day was supposed to be a stiff walk upwards all day but without walking fast we got to the hut around lunch time. So in the end it was an easy one. 

First nights camp at Brod Bay

I took a walk out in the afternoon to the local cave network and managed to get quite deep down. Thankfully my light held out as I thought after about 20 mins of moving further inside the cave it would be quite scary if I had no light to navigate back by. Sarah sat in Luxmore Hut admiring the view from the warmth of the hut and reading and left me free on the mountain so I wandered off making my own way around the mountain top. In the end I climbed to the top of little Mt Luxmore and enjoyed the views and the wind. 

Images from Mt Luxmore

The following day was a complete white out. This was a real shame as we should of had expansive views across the fjords. Instead visibility was down to about 10 metres, see pictures below. Later in the day around 12 noon the mist and cloud cleared somewhat and we found ourselves walking in 'Mordor' in the steps of Frodo Baggins. 

Walking through Mordor with Mt. Doom in the background

The image below probably doesn't show it but on either side it's a steep drop of hundreds of metres and the wind was blowing like nobody's business. 

Windy Wet and only a thin trail to walk on with visibility down to 10m ..........

By the evening we had come a good distance down again and near the campsite I found this waterfall, running straight off the glacier. 

Glacial melt water, you need to be brave to bathe in this one

Early morning and a gap in the beach trees, frost on the ground and tent

Close to the end. The Iris Burn River

Finished the walk a day early and headed for the car park hoping a bus would arrive but a friendly American girl we had spoken to earlier offered us a ride. Saved us a load of hassle. 

Once we had returned to Te Anau I saw this fella strolling around. Just like cats as soon as I took this picture he turned his back to me and couldn't of cared less.