Te Anau offered us the opportunity to hike a small part of one of the ‘Great Walks’ – the Kepler Track. Although this is a 3-4 day hike in total, it is easily accessible to be able to take a small portion as a day walk. We packed lunch and supplies and headed off for the control gates, that mark the start of the track.
Following the lake edge we walked around to Brod Bay, where we stopped for a scenic lunch. The views out over Lake Te Anau were stunning, everything was so still and peaceful.
Ambitious as we are we took the track heading up to Mount Luxmore Hut, rather than doing as planned and retracing our footsteps. This walkers hut has 60 dorm beds, and is run by the Department of Conservation. Sitting at the top of Mt Luxmore it marks the first overnight stop for the track hikers. We soon realised after nearly an hour of steep ascent through the beech forest that we would not make the tree line and then be able to get back into town before sunset, so we turned around and headed back.
All in all we arrived back at the campsite at 4:30pm, having done just over 20kms. After showering and eating dinner we relaxed in the lounge watching the movie channel…and made the most of having it to ourselves for the night!
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