Te Anau was the first place we paid to take a full day guided tour on our travels. We booked a nature cruise with Real Journeys and included was a round trip bus and boat tour through the Milford Sound. It was nice to have tour guides on the bus and boat who explained the history and biology of the area.
We were picked up at 7:30 AM from our hostel (YHA) and were supposed to be in a fancy bus with a glass ceiling and tilted seats but that one was out for repairs so we rode in a regular, non-fancy bus. It didn’t matter though because we were very fortunate regarding the weather and the timing of our day trip to the Milford Sound. No rain and clear skies by the time we were on the boat.
Milford Sound is known as the wettest inhabited place in New Zealand and one of the wettest in the world. They can get nearly 10 inches of rain in a 24-hour period. The area averages 268 inches of rain a year over 182 days.
The one day we booked to tour around looked like this:
I like to take pictures of people taking pictures.
We decided to get a bus pass to travel around New Zealand because we were going to be on the South Island for several weeks and had more time to get around. Also, the bus passes were cheaper and less risky than renting a car. We’ve heard and read about a lot of accidents with tourists here. They drive on the right side of the road but more than that, the roads are super narrow with little or no shoulder. A cab driver told us about the multiple fares he’s had taking passengers who’ve lost their rental cars (taken away by the police), for crossing over the center line.
Anyways, you lose flexibility when riding buses versus renting a car. Another nice part about our bus tour through Milford Sound was that it made several stops along the Milford Road, so we were able to see several different locations along the way to the Sound and back to Te Anau.
One of the highlights was stopping along the side of the road to fill up our water bottles with fresh glacial water, right out of the stream. It was delicious!!! I still think of the water and how refreshing it was…
This is fresh water from a glay-see-err. That's how they say glacier here.
We took something like 740 pictures and 10 videos during the time here, to give you a sense of how picturesque this part of the country is.
Here are a few selects images from the tour:
Lots of rain = lots and lots of waterfalls!
The boat portion of the trip was on this big boat:
Three masts, very serious.
Our boat was the biggest out there and Ryan took joy from the part where our boat captain raced with the smaller boats to get us into better position to see numerous waterfalls.
After the boat tour and a couple stops along the Milford Road, we went back to Te Anau to collect our tickets for the Kepler Track. Picking up track tickets in person allows you to talk with the rangers about current track conditions and weather forecasts.
I think I laughed out loud and asked the ranger if the wind predictions were correct because it said 120 km/ 74 mph. The not-laughing-ranger kindly explained it was not unusual to have high winds on the portion of the track between Luxmore Hut and the Iris Burn Saddle. Sometimes you just have to crawl on all fours with your pack on to get through it. However, they will close the track if winds exceed 160 km/ 99 mph.
I was already feeling a little intimidated because this was one of the longest walks we were doing, we were carrying our packs the entire time and camping in a tent and staying in huts for four nights. Gusts of wind up to 74 mph and the possibility of crawling on all fours on an exposed ridge line with a pack on made it seem less fun, some how. Rangers are busy people so after we picked up our tickets we went out looking for dinner in town.
That evening at The Ranch we were introduced to the shitty table service so many people told us about. People said the service at restaurants is terrible here because there are no tips. We didn’t have that experience until we stopped at The Ranch. We went there because one of the managers of the YHA said we could get good burgers there. We also learned not to take recommendations from people supposedly knowledgeable about good local food.
Upon entering a hostess greeted us and asked where we’d like to be seated. Unsure of the weather, (clouds were starting to roll in, but maybe it would hold off) we inquired about her opinion of the cloud situation. She offered, "Oh yeah it might rain or it might not. Sit wherever you’d like." I swear there was something a little east coast about her delivery… With her confidence, we decided to sit outside.
We sat for about 15 minutes reading over the menus and noticing the eight other tables not being served before grabbing two seats at the bar. We probably should have just left but the place was busy, so maybe the food was good?
It wasn’t, it was just meh. Also everything on the South Island costs $18.50. Any sandwich, $18.50.
The best part of the place was the conversation we had with the bartender who was originally from Idaho but had been working in New Zealand for a while and was thinking through where in the U.S. he’d like to relocate to next.
His criteria was something like:
- Be able to bike to work
- Opportunity for skiing
- Open carry
He was a young white guy and seemed pretty smart and I had no idea why he felt the need to open carry in a community where you ride your bike to work and later, hit the ski slopes. Whenever someone mentions the need to open carry it makes me think of the wild west and the show Deadwood and how America isn’t like that anymore, but I could see how back then everyone open carried. I’m sure he'll find a place in America that meets his new housing requirements.
We Are Go 2 walk around this place.
The next day we started our walk along the Kepler Track. We were completing the track in four days and the first day was only 8km (5 miles). We walked from the YHA to Te Anau Bird Sanctuary to see a Takahe, one of only 250 in the world, and then to the start of the track. Brod Bay campsite was one of the busiest we’ve been to and the drop toilets were evidence of that. Also, I thought we were going to die to death by falling trees because there were fallen trees all over the place and the winds were forecast to be up to 74 mph the next day.
I was glad the trees cooperated with our tenting location.
I woke up super early the next day, or maybe I didn’t really sleep because the waves from the lake were very loud even with earplugs in. We left Brod Bay around 8:00 AM.
A view of the lake in the morning from Brod Bay.
Some people only camp along the Kepler Track so they walk or take a water taxi to Brod Bay then proceed to Iris Burn, which is about 14 miles and includes a 2,900 foot ascent and 1,900 foot descent, in one day.
No thank you.
People also race the Kepler Track and the fastest times to complete THE ENTIRE TRACK is about 4.5 hours.
Since we left early from Brod Bay, we were the first people staying overnight to arrive at Luxmore Hut. Some people leave from the Kepler Track car park instead of Brod Bay or stop at the hut just for lunch. At the hut we took a side trip to the Luxmore Caves. It was super windy and you could feel the entire hut move in the wind.
A brief video of our windy walk above the tree line heading towards Luxmore Hut on the Kepler Track.
Luxmore Hut, a wonderful shelter from the wind and rain.
I like that the iPhone is also part of the cave shadows.
The Luxmore Hut was the second place we visited on the South Island where people stupidly handled a fireplace and nearly burned down half a building, so no more fires in the wood stove at Luxmore Hut. BOOOoooo. (The other location was on the Banks Peninsula Track.)
We were super fortunate again with the weather because the ranger who lived at the Luxmore Hut for five years commented on how this was one of the windiest two or three days he’s ever experienced on the track. The next day, when we were to cross the Luxmore Saddle, just a slight breeze. It was also the Summer Solstice and we ate lunch in snow flurries outside the Hanging Valley shelter looking at the beautiful surrounding mountains.
Our campsite at Iris Burn. We awoke to frost on the rainfly. Also, sandflies were a pain in the ass here too.
That night we camped at Iris Burn and I recall a guy stumbling into the site a little before sundown who had walked all the way from Brod Bay. He looked like he was in a lot of pain. He set up his tent and then went inside and passed out.
We made another side trip to the Iris Burn Waterfall where, of course, Ryan practiced skipping rocks and we saw a Blue Duck, or Whio, which are super rare!
This is a Blue Duck / Whio. I think he just swam over and posed for us on this rock. Then he jumped back into the water to pursue his evening activities.
We woke up to frost on our rainfly the next morning. Five hours later when I unrolled it from my pack at the Moturau Hut, it still had ice on it! The walk to Lake Manapouri was nice and Ryan took a dip in the freezing cold lake in his underpants. I did not. He also practiced skipping rocks in the lake.
The ranger at Moturau Hut looked just like my brother Stefan and she gave an awesome talk explaining how hard they work to kill all the nasty stoats that decimate basically all the birds and some plants in the park. Stoats are assholes who assassinate animals and don’t even eat them. They sound a lot like cats but more focused.
Here are some select images from sunset at the lake:
The last day on the Kepler Track we walked back to the Kepler Car Park along the Waiau River. We kept saying this is the place where Boromir dies. Ryan was done with walking and insisted we hitch a ride back to Te Anau from the car park. (What’s another 2 km when you’ve already walked 15?). I was happy to get a ride back to the YHA so we could pick up the rest of our stuff and then catch the bus to Queenstown. A nice hippy lady from California gave us a ride back to our hostel. She was waiting to meet her friends who were hiking some part of the Kepler Track but they didn't have enough hut tickets and she had an ankle injury and they lost/hid their tent in the woods and couldn't find it again, so yeah. But it sounded like they were having a good adventure in New Zealand despite the tramping drama.
Also, there are delicious meat pies in Te Anau. They taste REALLY GOOD after completing the Kepler Track!
Next post, Queenstown! The first place in New Zealand I saw vomit on the sidewalks...