A Taste of the Kepler Track

Undaunted by our (unsuccessful) fiftieth anniversary foray on the Dusky, a couple of days later we decided to give the Kepler Heli-Hike a try. It involves a (claimed) 3 1/2 hour walk down from the Luxmore Hut to Brod Bay on the Western shore of Lake Te Anau (pretty accurate – for us anyway – at age 72 average) as well as a helicopter ride from Te Anau to a peak a little further up the range (from Mt Luxmore) before landing at the hut to begin the walk. The walk culminates in a water taxi ride back to Te Anau instead of another 3+ hour walk. The cost was NZ$325 per person.

Here is the helicopter at Te Anau ready to take us up the mountain.

And we’re off.

There is nothing finer than flying in Fiordland, but do try to save some money too for a flight around the fiords (we did – post coming up).

Here we are landed on top of a mountain.

With very similar alpine vegetation as you find at home atop Mt Baw Baw for example.

And a lovely mountain tarn (lake).

Great views of Lake Te Anau.

And those ‘ragged battlements on high’.

Landing at the Luxmore Hut.

If you zoom in on the hut you will see heaps of folks on the verandah. It sleeps nearly sixty people. We were not allowed inside by bossy hut custodians (unless we took off our clean shoes). I’d guess that I would not enjoy the crowds on this (or other) ‘great walks’. You may be more sociable.

And off we go towards Brod Bay. This section divides roughly into three: a fairly level section of snowgrass for about an hour; a steeper section through beech forest for a further hour, then a ‘flatter’ section as the beech forest breaks out into more ‘coastal’ type forest for a further hour. I guess around 1,000 metres of descent.

The track is well-made. This is about as ‘rough’ as it gets. Not wheelchair access, but not far off – but there are some steps later on.

The snow-grass plains between Lake Roe and Loch Marie on the Dusky blow this completely away. They are filled with a thousand beautiful tarns – but this is quite nice too.

Here is a view from the Dusky for comparison – a myriad of jewel lakes:

But there are lovely long stretches of snow-grass here too.

After about an hour the tree-line creeps closer.

Soon you plunge into an ancient beech forest. Beware orcs!

The track is well gravelled.

The trees are festooned with old man’s beards everywhere.

It is a stunningly beautiful forest – well worth the walk up from the bottom (free) even, if you are young and fit. You only need to book the track if you are going to stay in the huts.

Della is enjoying it, as you can see.

Some great old trees – ‘Fangorn’ country.

Suddenly we met a pair of friendly kea whom people clearly do feed – though we did not. It only encourages them. They will eat anything which is not nailed down, particularly being fond of shoelaces

– as you can see.

There is a spot (on the right) about half way down where you could tent camp, though it may not be permitted. We encountered around a hundred people on this section of track. This would have compared with none for eight days on the Dusky. You go figure which you prefer. I suspect many such folk would resent you camping by the side of the track.

Anyway there are plenty of comfy seats along the way for picnic lunches and the like. We always bring a 2’x2′ square of silnylon for this purpose.

There are two sets of short steps like this.

Then some magnificent cliffs. Shortly after this cliff which goes on for several hundred meters, Della managed to fall flat on her face, tripping pretty much over her own feet – though she had not made a mis-step on much harder going on the Dusky. She badly scratched and bruised her nose, one knee and a forearm and had a black eye for over a week – so such photo opportunities became much less. Left profile only for a while after this.

This is a reminder: if you enjoy the wilderness carry some means of communication (sat phone &/or messenger) so that you an be rescued by helicopter etc if necessary. Disaster can strike very quickly and dangerously. You will note that we had to camp out in our hammocks under a tarp on the Dusky only days before.

Lichen, ferns and moss love the high rainfall.