The second day of the hike along the Kepler Track was almost entirely above tree-line (or bush-line as it is called here). After listening to the detailed weather forecast from the Ranger at the hut the night before, we knew that we wanted to get an early start to ensure that we had crossed the narrowest of the ridges before the wind picked up and the clouds came in.
The advantage, or maybe disadvantage, or hiking among the tussock grass that grows in this alpine environment is that it is easy to see where the trail goes next, and for much of the morning that meant a steady uphill climb.
Leaving Luxmore Hut, we made our way over towards the lower slopes of Mount Luxmore stopping to catch our breath and take in the early morning views back towards the hut and Lake Te Anau in the distance.
As we continued to climb, the landscape around us started to change and the yellow tussock grass covered slopes gave way to greener, steeper ridges. As we had been able to get an earlier start than some of the other, larger groups at the hut, it felt as though we had the mountains to ourselves.
Despite our early start, the wind had already started to pick up and we could feel ourselves being buffeted as we made our way along the narrow ridgeline. As the track wove between the peaks and crossed the saddle in between the wind would quickly shift direction making us glad to be following a well-formed trail.
As we rounded a bend in the track, we got our first view of the South Fiord arm of Lake Te Anau. From our vantage point on the ridge, we were able to take in the mountains of Fiordland in the distance, some of which were covered by the low clouds that were starting to build.
Once again we were able to see the next section of track stretching out before us along the ridgeline. With the clouds continuing to build and the wind really starting to pick up we decided to continue along to the shelter for a quick morning snack.
After sitting out of the deck of the emergency shelter for a while, we continued to make our way along the ridge. Despite the wind, we were so glad that we had such good weather for our trek across the ridge. Everywhere we looked were ridges and peaks in every direction and as the low clouds raced past the lighting and views were constantly changing.
After a couple of hours of walking along the ridge, we came to the last shelter on the exposed section of the track. From our vantage point, we enjoyed a final view out towards the South Fiord of Lake Te Anau before turning sharply towards the Iris Burn Valley and Lake Manapouri.
As we stopped at the last shelter to enjoy the views, we were joined by a couple of Keas. We watched them flying past us, playing in the thermals coming off of the ridge and curiously checking to see if we would leave anything unguarded for them to play with. It was so nice to see these cheeky birds in the wild, after previously running across them up to no good at the ski resorts. We later heard from the Ranger at the hut that one of the Keas had managed to climb down the vent pipe of the long-drop (portable toilet) next to the shelter and had given a hiker quite a shock when they went to lift the lid! It seems that their curiosity doesn’t always pay off!
We left the ridge behind and began our descent into the Iris Burn Valley. From high up on the ridge, it seemed a long way down to the valley floor where we would be spending the night, however when the trail became a steep staircase, we realised that we would be loosing our altitude quite quickly.
We descended rapidly and soon found ourselves back below bushline on a trail that wound down through the beech forest. After a dizzying number of switchbacks, we came out of the forest into a clearing with Iris Burn hut in the distance.
We enjoyed a late lunch at the hut and then spent the afternoon exploring the area. We went for a walk to the nearby Iris Burn falls. Weaving through moss covered forest, it was hard to imagine that just a few hours earlier we had been walking along the windswept ridges covered only with patches of grass.
The track followed the upper section of the Iris Burn river and from the trail we had beautiful views of the clear water. The late afternoon sunlight seemed to highlight the leaves and different mosses in the trees.
We came around a bend in the track to see Iris Burn falls in front of us. We made our way back to the hut to relax for a while before dinner. After eating we listened to an interesting talk by the ranger about the local birds. We had an early night, but were woken in the night by the sounds of Kiwi birds screeching in the bushes just behind the hut.