The Kepler

A few excerpts from our daily log -

Feb. 20, 2009 - Friday
Te Anau to Luxmore Hut, Kepler Track

It was raining when we woke this morning, but that didn't dampen our spirits! Oh, no! We put on all our raingear and headed bravely onto the Kepler Track around 10 AM. Six hours later, we arrived at the Luxmore Hut, soaked, and having seen nothing on our hike due to the low cloud cover. Our spirits (and our clothes) were slightly dampened. On the bright side, the forecast is predicting "periods of rain" for the next three days!

Soooo. Big fun we are having. But at least everything in our bags stayed dry, so we did have warm, dry clothes to change into and a warm sleeping bag to sleep in.

We shall see what tomorrow will bring. Perhaps we will bail out a day early if the weather stays like this. On one hand, it sucks to give up, but on the other, what's the point in trekking in the rain for three days if all you can say at the end is, "I did it?".

PS - Bjorn is the master champion of the YES 5 dice game, aka Yahtzee.

Feb. 21, 2009 - Saturday
Luxmore Hut to Iris Burn Campsite
Feb. 22, 2009 - Sunday
Iris Burn Campsite to Shallow Bay Hut

Yesterday was plain awful. You can say that again! Yesterday was plain awful! Not enjoyable. We were thinking about hiking back down to Te Anau, but decided to go forward - we wouldn't have anything to do in rainy Te Anau anyway. We had booked a campsite for last night but were fairly sure we could upgrade to the hut if we wanted (though that would cost us $60).

We waited at the Luxmore Hut til about noon, trying to decrease our potential time sitting at the rainy campsite later on. We had to put on all of our cold and wet clothes from the day before - brrrr! And miserable! We stepped out into the clouds and rain. The wind had picked up quite a bit, too, so the wind was coming in sideways, stinging our cold faces and hands. We trekked for three miserable hours across the ridge in the alpine area. We could tell we were on a ridge because of the steep slant of the ground on either side of us, but we had ZERO visibility. Spectacular scenery, we walked through, we're certain, but we didn't see any of it.

When we finally got down to the treeline, we were soaked and cold. Luckily, we had gotten out of the wind and under the cover of the forest, so our spirits brightened a bit on the last hour's walk.

We deliberated quite a bit but somehow decided to stick it out with the camping. There was a decent shelter, at least, where we could leave our wet things and cook a quick meal before fleeing into the tent. We were in the tent around 7 PM - not too much time to have to kill (and well killed with reading and cookie eating!).

Tent stayed reasonably dry, but we did have to stick to the very center of it to avoid the puddles forming at the sides. Neither of us slept very well, but we did manage to stay warm and dry all night.

We woke this morning to a light drizzle, which was an improvement! By the time we finished breakfast, there was just a thick fog/mist and big drops falling from the trees. Colder, wetter clothes on again, we were on the trail by 8:45 AM. At that time, we were planning to exit the trek a day earlier than planned at Rainbow Reach (where you can catch a shuttle bus back to Te Anau). But, the day progressed without much rainfall, and our clothes slowly dried on our bodies. The sun even peaked out once or twice!

So, we decided to pursue tthe original plan and sleep at the $5 backcountry hut at Shallow Bay (just 30 minutes down from MOtorau Hut - $45 per person, crowded, etc.). The hut only sleeps six, so we were a bit nervous about our chances of getting a bed (first come, first serve!), but when we arrived, there was no one else here! And by some miracle, we are STILL the only people here (though there were several passers-by and a warden around earlier).

The hut is awesome. It has three bunk beds, a tiny cooking area, and a huge fireplace. It also has lots of handy lines and hooks for hanging wet clothes. We have been here since 1:30 PM and have been sitting next to our cozy little fire since about 3:30 PM. The hut is situated right on Lake Manapouri - just gorgeous! We've never found a more secluded spot on one of these treks and can't imagine why this hut isn't used mroe often!

The rain started up again two hours ago, but who cares? We have a fire! And a roof over our heads! And a hot cup of tea and a good book and good company! What more could you ask for?

Ellen would like to ask that it NOT RAIN tomorrow. All her clothes are finally dry.

Feb. 23, 2009 - Monday
Shallow Bay Hut to Te Anau

Well, our magical hut kinda turned into a hell hole overnight. After the fire went out, LOADS of mosquitoes (called "mozzies" here) crept down the chimney into the hut. We spent the entire night smacking ourselves in the face and neck. There was NO escaping those little shits. Hunkering all the way down in the sleeping bag was no good because it was WAY too hot...not to mention they still found a way to get in.

Between the mosquitoes constant neeeeeeeeeee in our ears, the heat, the thirst, the loud rain banging down on the roof (and Ellen was also plagued with a good bit of FEAR of the serial killer certain to be lurking outside), we got very little sleep. Maybe three hours.

We were out of there early and think we must have killed at least 60 mozzies between us. Now we know why no one uses this hut!

The walk back to Te Anau took us a bit over four hours. It was pretty flat walking and it didn't rain on us one bit, so it was a nice and easy day.

We are settled into a cozy little house now for the night. The hostel we stayed at before was booked, but the lady said one of her friends ran a "hostel", too. It's really more of a homestay, though. But that's fine. We've had an amazing shower and a gigantic pig-out - chips, pizza, beer, and ice cream. WE DESERVE IT!

Onto Queenstown tomorrow. Considering the Rees-Dart track in a few days. Are we crazy? Somehow the misery of the last few days has faded already - funny how that happens!

***

So here we are - Thursday. We've been in Queenstown for two nights now. We are scheduled to show up at our WWOOF placement on Tuesday, so we've got just a few days to kill before that. There's a 50% chance we will go out on the Rees-Dart track tomorrow, which is about 80 km of walking through Mount Aspiring National Park. We just visited the DOC office, though, and they said the trek was "significantly harder" than the Kepler, with several river crossings. I am feeling interested, but a little nervous. We'll see. Going to give it a few hours to mull it over.

Oh! I almost forgot to mention. Plans! We have plane tickets out now! We are flying out of Auckland on May 8 to Bangkok, where we'll stay for three weeks (though hopefully not actually in Bangkok). Then we're onto SWEDEN on May 29. Time for me to meet the Anderssons. Eek!

Love to you all - sorry for the long entry. New photos! I can't take credit for them all - many are from Bjorn's camera. Enjoy! http://picasaweb.google.com/ellen.bucy