kepler track

New Zealand is very well known for its amazing scenery, but when planning to come here, I tried not to get my hopes up to high about seeing some of the spectacular landscapes shown in all the travel books and brochures, figuring that the prettiest places were probably the most remote and expensive to get to. It's true that some of the amazing sights are quite remote, but luckily, I am still getting the opportunity to enjoy them.
Amy, Maya and I just returned from hiking the Kepler Track - a three-day tramp covering 60 kilometers and scaling several mountains. It was not easy, but it was so worth the steep climbs, blisters, sandfly bites, sore muscles and anxiety about the weather.
We left the morning of the 23rd, a beautiful sunny day, from Lake Te Anau and climbed up toward Mt. Luxmore. It was about six hours of uphill switchbacks through the bush - not the most pleasant experience. But just when we thought we were about to die, we arrived at the treeline and walked along mountain ridges with spectacular views of snow-capped mountains and green valleys on either side. We arrived at Luxmore Hut with a surprising amount of energy left, and since the weather was nice, we decided to hike to the summit rather than take our chances the next morning, knowing how quickly mountain weather can change. The view from the summit of Mt. Luxmore (1400m) was awe inspiring. We had a 360 degree view of the Fiordlands, with Lake Te Anau spread out below us. The final 400 meters were a bit scary; we were basically crawling up rocks, but the feeling once we got on top and could see how far we'd come was exhilarating.
We spent the night at the hut with about 50 other hikers and woke up the next morning to a clear blue sky above us and billowy clouds blanketing the valleys below. It was a great scene to enjoy with our muesli and powdered milk.
The morning of the second day we had to re climb the summit, but were glad we had gone up the day before without our packs, since the wind seemed bent on blowing us off the ridges. It was a bit scary, and a couple of times I was glad my pack was so heavy so it anchored me down a bit. The second day was simply amazing. All day we walked along the ridges and crossed saddles and took breaks in emergency huts with other hikers while taking our wind gear off and on. The views were just so gorgeous and we were right there in the middle of it without a hint of civilization anywhere close. Clear blue lakes filled the valleys below us, and with each turn of the trail we were greeted with another mountain range. At the end of the day we descended quickly into a valley filled with beautiful meadows and unfortunately, sandflys - the most awful creatures in the world. I'm still cursing them.
By the second night we were all pretty good friends with the other hikers and we spent the evening playing cards and chatting late into the night - well at least until it finally got dark enough to sleep at 10:30.
The final day was long, especially with our sore muscles and itchy bites, but we made it the final 26 kilometers through a river valley and more bush until we arrived back near Te Anau and rushed into town for showers and cheeseburgers.
After a good night's sleep on real beds we all firmly decided we would hike the Routburn next - no matter how sore and tired we were. We're going to go book beds in the huts later today.