 The fiordlands of New Zealand have always been somewhere I have wanted to explore, so I was very excited to spend the next 5 days in this area. The highlights would be the Milford Sound and our 4 day trek on the Kepler trail.
On March 5th, Mike, The Hoff, and I got an early start to drive the 120 km to the Milford sound with enough time to sightsee before our nature cruise. The drive started along the shores of Lake Te Anau, which is a huge lake with very blue water with green mountains as its backdrop. The sun was shinning and we were lucky as it rains 7 meters a year here!
Our first stop was Eglinton Valley which gave us a great view of the golden grasses on the valley floor contrasted by the green trees and rocky snow-covered peaks. It was majestic even with the hordes of tourists surrounding us. It looked like we timed our drive so we could share it with the buses! Interestingly, this valley was used to raise sheep and many of the grasses that we now see were planted here by the first settlers to feed their sheep. I wonder what it looked like before the foreign grasses were introduced?
As we were looking around , a helicopter came past us flying really low with a camera hooked on, and 2 Toyota Priuses drove the road side by side with all the other traffic stopped. They repeated the sequence a few times, and then the helicopter flew off, and the crew opened the road to general traffic. Mike and I think it was the new Toyota commercial, but we’ll have to see.
We hopped back into The Hoff to continue our journey past Mirror Lake where we saw two blue ducks, which are very rare, and caught a nice reflection of the mountains. The road continued to climb, and we had amazing views of the glaciers, mountains, and tree filled valleys. The glaciers have receded significantly, and we could see the carved rock from its path. Finally we arrived at Homer tunnel, which is 1207 meters long and sloped downwards, so when you are in the middle you can’t see either end! It is a one way tunnel, so while we waited we enjoyed our first views of Kea. The Kea is the world’s only alpine parrot and is a pretty green color with red highlights under its wings.
At last, we arrived at the Milford Sound and enjoyed a nice picnic lunch while taking in the views of the water and the magnificent Mt. Mitre. Wow, just stunning!! We also encountered our first sandflies of the trip, and they are not so pleasant!
We had decided to take a nature cruise around the sound to fully appreciate its beauty and see some wildlife. It was amazing to stare straight up the sides of the fiord and think of a huge glacier carving this out thousands of years ago. We saw lots of waterfalls and beautiful mountains. Our wildlife highlights were fur seals sleeping on the rocks and a pod of dolphins which swam next to our ship when we entered the Tasman Sea. It was a really fun day full of beautiful nature!
Mike and I had chosen the Kepler Trail as our Great Walk track for its alpine and lake views and because it was a loop instead of one-way. It was a 4 day long trek, and we would sleep in huts each night with cooking facilities. So we could travel light without a tent and stove.
Our first day of hiking started out flat following the shoreline of Lake Te Anau for the first hour through a pretty beech forest. We wrapped around the lake until we were opposite of the town of Te Anau. The threatening rain held off, and we turned inland and uphill for an afternoon climb. Bright green moss was everywhere and in some spots thick like carpet. It was beautiful, but we could tell it rained a lot here! The climbing finished, and we topped out above tree line for a great view of Lake Te Anau and the hidden lakes below us and the surrounding mountains. Of course, at this point it started to downpour, so we trudged along toward the hut feeling very thankful that we would have a dry place to sleep tonight!
The Luxmore Hut sleeps 55 people, and it was full. There was a nice big common area and a large kitchen with several gas burner stoves to use. We chilled out in the common area talking with a few other trampers and looking out the window at the pretty view through the rain. Dinner was a bit of a comedy as Mike learned that the billy pot got super hot on the burner and that his hat was not heat proof. Luckily, we didn’t have to use the fire extinguisher.
Our ranger, Fay, gave a hut talk including a description of the next day’s hike and how to keep the hut nice and tidy. She also explained that the traps that we had seen all day long were to capture and kill stoats. The stoats were introduced in the early 1900’s to kill the rabbits that were introduced before that. Unfortunately, the stoats love to prey on the Kiwi and are a real threat to the eggs and young. So they have created this trap program to help reduce the stoat population.
The next morning, we awoke to fog and rain. The weather forecast said it might clear by afternoon, so we relaxed in the hut until 10 am, which was as late as we were able to stay, with hopes that the weather would improve. Today is the money day – a ridge walk with views of Lake Te Anau and Manapouri and the surrounding peaks, so it was the worst day for the weather to be bad.
Well, Mike and I walked all day in the rain and imagined the views that we were missing as it never cleared up. It was still fun, and we enjoyed ourselves anyway. After walking 4 hours, we started to descend again into the beech forest. Moss was hanging off in huge clumps from the tree and covering every available surface. It was really pretty, especially with the mist! Eventually, we arrived at our second hut – Iris Burn for an early dinner and crawled into our bags for bed. We did have a hut talk from Robbie, and he made it quite entertaining all the while telling us what a shame we didn’t get to see the awesome views. Bad luck.
Mike woke me up early telling me that the sun was shining and to see if I wanted to climb back up to the ridge to get a glimpse of what we missed yesterday. I was game, so after a quick breakfast we left our packs and headed back uphill for 2 hours to the tree line and a viewpoint. Oh, it was so breathtaking with mountains surrounding us and pretty vivid blue lakes below us! It would have been so nice to spend the day walking the ridgeline enjoying these awesome views, but we had to turn back as we still had another 6 hours of hiking.
After getting back to the Iris Burn Hut to enjoy our lunch, we hit the flat trail to the next hut. The trail continued through the forest and then ended at Lake Manapouri, which was so pretty. The hut was right on the water so we got to enjoy the pretty views while resting our barking dogs! We put in 25 km, an additional 10 to hike for the views, which were worth the effort! I slept good that night, though. J
Our last morning, Mike again woke me up early by showing me a picture of the gorgeous sunrise. So I hopped out of the bunk to go see for myself and, wow, was it stunning! The sky was bright pink and the lake with the mountains made it a sunrise not to forget! After breakfast, we hit the trail and were ready to be done as it was another 4 hour hike through the woods without much to see. I did see some really cool red mushrooms that looked like they were from the Mario brothers! I was happy to get back to The Hoff and take my boots off, though, after 70km in 4 days, my feet were tired!
To our surprise, we had a note on our windshield from our friends Ross and Bonnie from the UK, who we had met in Thailand on New Year’s eve. We had emailed them our Spaceship name as we were both in New Zealand at the same time. So we ended up meeting them back in Te Anau for lunch of meat pies and pasties! It was so much fun to catch up on what we had each done in the last 2 months!
Our day ended with a drive back to Wanaka to spend the night. We did celebrate our tramp with a beer at the ale house and toasted to seeing some of the most beautiful wilderness that we have ever seen. Although, it did remind us a lot of home, so maybe that is why we liked it so muchJ
