Taking on the Kepler

PAUL RUSH finds tramping the Kepler Track a challenging 67 kilometres of grunt, while others run it in record time.

I'm making good time down a long switchback descent, nicely balanced and cushioned by my Leki poles. John passes me at a rate of knots, burning up the coarse gravel track as if his life depends on it.

I stop momentarily to watch him with both surprise and admiration as he zooms ahead, propelling himself forward with the agility of a mountain goat. This twenty-something, fair-haired, Danish-born tramper from Manchester is carrying a full-sized backpack and appears to be thoroughly enjoying himself. His crutches move forward in a blur of motion and his one dangling leg follows with singular dexterity.

There's something about the Kepler Track that invites people to take up the challenge and conquer its many kilometres of dense Fiordland beech forest, exposed alpine ridges, steep descents and long glacial valleys.

The track is a New Zealand Great Walk attracting 8000 trampers each year, 80 per cent being overseas visitors. It is also the venue for the Kepler Challenge mountain race and the 28-kilometre Luxmore Grunt. Each year 550 competitors slog through rain and mud in cool temperatures and produce fast times. The record for the track stands at a staggering 4 hours 41 minutes.

With this statistic in mind, I set out from Brod Bay on my leisurely four-day tramp, fully resolved not to break records but to enjoy the scenery at my own pace. Steve, the water taxi driver, graphically described the hazards of the alpine section that lay ahead. One winter three Asian trampers got into difficulties in heavy snow conditions. When a rescue helicopter reached them, they were lying in the snow, suffering from advanced hypothermia.

Streaks of sunlight flood the forest floor on my four-hour climb in the primordial peace of mountain beech forest. The gravel track is well graded and bears no sign of human activity not so much as a sweet wrapper is to be seen. The Department of Conservation practice of handing out rubbish bags with hut tickets clearly gets the message across.

At the halfway mark, another tramper comes steaming up behind me despite the formidable load in his bulging backpack. Kasu, the Tokyo landscape architect, shows me his two heavy-duty Canon reflex camera bodies, multiple lenses and tripod, which takes his load way above the 20-kilogram mark.

Kat and Jenny from Sydney and a couple from Glasgow join me for a lunch break in a cosy clearing. We speculate on the length of this unrelenting climb and ask in jest who has the "chateau cardboard" and the ice-cold beer.

Within 30 minutes we emerge from the tree line to view open tussock tops, a stunning blue sky and breathtaking scenery. Soon we're relaxing in the comfort of the well-appointed Mt Luxmore Hut.

Mark, the hut warden, presents his safety talk that evening, stressing that candles are "verboten" in the bunkroom, as is swimming in the nearby tarn the hut's water supply.

After a visit to the nearby limestone caves, and a view of the Murchison Mountains bathed in the afterglow of a setting sun, we all turn in.

At dawn I head off to tackle the Kepler tops, along a series of undulating exposed ridges overlooking the South Fiord of Lake Te Anau. A 20-minute diversion to reach the summit of Mt Luxmore provides a magnificent 360-degree panorama over lakes Te Anau, Manapouri and the Murchison mountains, home of the takahe, a large flightless rail that was thought to be extinct but was rediscovered in 1948.

A bright cluster of alpine tarns reflects the dawn light from their saucer-like basins. Later when the noon sun becomes hard to bear, I swim in a tarn, taking care to avoid trampling mountain daisies, bluebells, gentians and dracophyllum plants that dot the surrounding herb fields.

The narrow ribbon of track winds its way over ridge tops and saddles past the Forest Burn and Hanging Valley shelters, generally following the 1300-metre contour line for a full four hours. The first view of the Iris Burn river flats is a great boast to morale. I judge the descent time to be around 40 minutes, but the scale and immensity of the Fiordland landscape deceives me and the final zig-zagging section of track takes a full hour to traverse.

Pania, the Iris Burn hut warden, welcomes many weary wanderers into her domain a large tussock clearing in the middle reaches of an idyllic valley. The night's tally was 20 Israelis, and 40 other trampers, mainly Australians, Germans, Dutch and Kiwis. Pania revels in the peace and tranquillity of the Iris Burn. Her favourite part of the six-month contract is the ongoing track maintenance and her special quiet place is the nearby swimming hole.

Joe, from South Africa, sprained her ankle coming down the last steep incline, but strapped it up and boldly soldiered on. Her friend Mark carried some of her gear including a massive diary, which weighed almost a kilo. The famous diary had also traversed the Rees Dart Track recording many magic moments. Mark carried a set of illuminated poi and a frisbee for light entertainment when the going got tough.

The remarkable fitness and endurance of many of our foreign visitors impressed me. Richard, from Perth, walked the entire Kepler Track in two days; the second day was 12 hours non-stop. Rachael and David from Switzerland, did 15 hours straight to reach Iris Burn and walked out the next day.

The leisurely day's tramp down the Iris Burn made a pleasant change from the sunbaked trek on the open tops. The leaf-littered pathway wanders through primeval beech and podocarp forest, home to a curious fantails, tomtits and chaffinches. After six hours the route follows Lake Manapouri's shoreline to Moturau Hut situated above a lakefront beach where the water temperature is 21 degree Celsius perfect for a refreshing swim.

Three water-ski boats were hauled up on the beach. How curious I thought, that people would choose to play directly below the wilderness hut.

By 7pm that night I knew the reason why, as a dozen teenage lads had taken up residence on our front lawn, replete with cartons of beer.

Their liquor-fuelled bravado initially extended to inviting young female trampers to share their liquid refreshments and camaraderie. But by 9.30pm the behavioural boundaries were well and truly breached as the lads stripped naked and ran through the dorms yelling "Come on, everyone's doing it man!"

The riotous behaviour continued until the errant lads had succeeded in kissing every young woman and the hut warden had lost her patience. The two worst offenders suffered the indignity of swimming after their departing boat. Finally, peace and propriety was restored in the bunkrooms of our remote wilderness hut.

My pleasant stroll out of the park, crosses the Amoeboid Mire, an open sphagnum moss swamp, ringed with sedges, rushes and bog pine. The track passes an ancient course of the Upper Waiau River called Balloon Loop and continues along the Waiau terraces to the Rainbow Reach swing bridge. There is an option to continue upstream for three hours to reach the official track starting point at the control gates.

The Kepler Track is indeed a Great Walk in every sense challenging, but also rewarding, due to its huge diversity of landscapes.

The panorama from the lofty summit of Mt Luxmore is a highlight. The early-morning sun casts long shadows that accentuate every glacier-sculptured landform in intricate detail. The perfect stillness and silence of the alpine section is quite amazing. It gives the feeling of walking on the top of the world. At times there is almost too much scenery to take in.

This is the best planned track in New Zealand, forming a complete, well-manicured loop; custom designed for trampers who want to explore the raw, remote and untouched world that is Fiordland.

It caters for every big track tramper who wants a walk on the wild side, either at my pedestrian pace of four days for the circuit or at the lightning pace of those supercharged, adrenalin-rich endorphin freaks who knock it off in four hours.

 

CONTACT

Website: doc.govt.nz/explore/greatwalks

Booking Desk, Te Anau: phone 032498514

Email: greatwalksbooking @doc.govt.nz

Bookings are essential in the October-April walking season.

- The Marlborough Express