Te Anau: A Tramper’s Delight

Te Anau is probably as close as I will ever get to the South Pole.  Positioned at 45°25 S latitude, there isn’t much to the town besides that it happens to be the starting point for many of New Zealand's Great Walks, such as the world famous Milford Track, the Routeburn Track, and the Kepler Track.  Each walk takes anywhere between two and four days to complete, so with only a day to explore, I chose to do a one-day hike of the Kepler Track for free.  The man at the info desk did inform me that I could run the entire 60km of the Kepler Track (which offers a 1000+ meter climb in its first portion) in one day, as the world record holder did it in just 4 hours 37 minutes and 41 seconds.  Fortunately for that guy, I didn't feel like breaking any records that day.

I began my journey at precisely 8:42am on a cloudy and windy day: perfect tramping weather.  The forest was full of all kinds of native bush, such as the silver fern, which, although I have seen many times before, only just realized is the tree from which the New Zealand symbol is derived from.  It was fairly quiet most of the way, besides the crashing of waves in the bay and the groaning of the trees in the wind.  I found that the latter was important to take note of, since landfalls are quite common on the track.  I saw evidence of two landfalls on the way up and a new third one on the way down, which I luckily wasn't present for. 

At 10:37am, I reached the finished the initial lakeside walk and reached the beginning of the steep climb to the top of Mt. Luxmore.  The signpost there read: "Luxmore Hut: 4.30 hr.  Track times can be reduced by half for fit trampers in good weather."  Being an obviously fit tramper, I decided that I'd like to try and cut that time in half.  Not having to carry camping equipment and three days worth of food allowed me to walk fairly briskly and I stopped scarcely, only for snacks and photos.  About an hour in, due to the fatigue mixed with the burning sensation in my quads, I began to envision the most gloriously comfortable places to sit down and rest on things that any normal person would avoid sitting on at all costs, such as jagged, moss-covered rocks.  Forcing these images out of my mind, I staggered on.

At 12:08pm, I saw the light at the end of the tunnel.  I had made it out of the thick forest and found myself surrounded by a spectacular panorama of mountains.  I all but forgot about how tired I was and reveled in the beauty around me, taking copious amounts of photos.  I reached Luxmore Hut at 12:32pm, having successfully completed the indicated "4.30 hr" climb in just under two hours.  After spending about an hour on the top taking pictures, enjoying a much needed lunch, talking with Amanda on the phone, and exploring the Luxmore cave (though I barely step foot in it, not having a torch to light my way) I began my decent, which was easy enough as gravity did its work and allowed me to clamor and clunk to the bottom lifelessly.  With about an hour and a half left of flat land walking, I found little motivation besides the gray storm clouds chasing behind me and the juicy porterhouse steak I bought the night before, knowing I would need a reason not to lay down and sleep in the forest after what turned out to be an 8 hour walk.  It was well worth the journey, and the steak was scrumtrulescent.

more pictures here