New Zealand - Te Anau and Kepler Track

From Queenstown we drove the two hours to Te Anau through a beautiful but surprisingly brown landscape. What I remember from 25 years ago when I was in New Zealand was that everything was green. Not so now. January was the hottest month ever recorded in New Zealand and the southern end of the South Island is in drought conditions. Compared to Hawaii or Southeast Asia it didn’t seem that hot to me, but the Kiwis were fairly melting in the unaccustomed heat.


Te Anau was our base for exploring Fiordland National Park, albeit for only two days. We only have a week to travel along the southern scenic route before we need to be in Christchurch for the first of two house sits. We did have enough time after arriving in Te Anau to get a taste of The New Zealand Great Walks, which are premier tramping tracks (what we would call hiking trails) that wind through some of the best scenery the country has to offer. The full walks are popular multi-day affairs requiring reservations (sometimes months in advance) for the huts provided along the routes for overnight accommodation. We had neither the reservations, gear, or time for any of that so we instead settled for a day hike on a section of the Kepler Track. What was most accessible to us (save an expensive helicopter ride) wasn’t the alpine area with big views, but rather a nice forest walk from the Rainbow Reach swing bridge to Lake Manapouri. Very nice.

Lake Te Anau


Beautiful but brown. Not your normal New Zealand.
(photo by Deborah)


Deborah at the swing bridge


Ferns are everywhere along this section of the Kepler Track








Boardwalk over wetland





Hmmm, which way?
(photo by Deborah)


Moturau Hut - certainly a lot bigger and a lot fancier than I expected.


Lake Manapouri


Big sky over Lake Manapouri

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