Kepler Track

The company I work for closed down for two weeks over Christmas and New Years, so I took the opportunity to hike two of the Great Walks in the South Island.  The first one was the Kepler track, a 60 kilometre, four-day trek.

I'm not ashamed to say this hike KICKED MY BUTT.  The first day was about six hours long, four hours of which was steeply and unrelentingly upwards.  I started the uphill portion strong, but by the end I was stopping every few metres to catch my breath and rest my aching legs.  Most of the trail was below the treeline and there wasn't much of a view...until we ascended above the treeline and could see EVERYTHING.  

Suddenly all the effort was worth it.  The view was gorgeous, and the feeling that I had earned the view was even better.

Even so, the hut was a welcome sight that night.

From the outside, the hut looked like a 1980s split level home, randomly stuck on some hilltop where the only access was by helicopter or walking track.  But on the inside, the hut slept something like 60 people and was incredibly luxurious for a backcountry hut, even on a Great Walk.

There were individual bunks instead of a bunk platform...

 There was a big kitchen with gas cookers, so people didn't have to carry a stove.  (I carried a stove anyway since experience has told me that sometimes the gas cookers in the hut are unreliable.)

And there was a large dining area (inside and outside) with plenty of seating.

And the best part was...there were flush toilets!  In a hut!  (I didn't take pictures of those because you all know what they look like.)  The bad part was the sandflies, especially in the toilets.  I could never remember to put bug repellent on the parts of me that were exposed when I was using a toilet, and those sandflies would swarm as soon as I sat down.

Day 2 continued upwards until the trail reached the peak of Mount Luxmore.  I took my shoes off and had some lunch at the top.

And then we crossed the mountain saddle.

And then the trail went down.  Down, down, down.  I thought down would be fun, especially after going up the day before.  But I was wrong: down was no fun at all.  It was steep and difficult and unrelenting, and my knees were killing me by the time I finally got to the bottom.  I was trying to protect my knees and ended up pounding my ankles instead--one ankle is still stiff almost a month later.

The next two days were relatively flat and wandered along a lakeside.  I didn't get any pictures because, after crossing the saddle, none of the views seemed quite photo-worthy.

I did, however, like this detour sign.  It says, "Danger, Track closed due to: NAZGUL ATTACKS."

And the "After" picture.  I'm tired but I made it!