We were so lucky as the weather was amazing, so hot and clear, we really could see for miles. We started the track at Rainbow Reach and accessed the track over a huge swing bridge which crossed a fast flowing, wide and beautiful emerald green river. It looked so nice I was tempted to jump in! I did choose not to due to the speed of the water and also because I had a walk to get on with!
The first day and a half passes through dense lush forests which are predominately large tree ferns, the path winds along the side of the river and every now and then opens up to give a glimpse of the world outside of the forest. We didn't see any wildlife but why would we, they will all be hanging out in the dense stuff that the path is away from.
We had to be totally self sufficient and so we had 3 days food, all weather gear and a tent with us. Any litter you take in, you have to take back out with you.
The self sufficient pack pony on the move!
It was an amazing experience, we camped in very basic campsites (land that had a smelly compost toilet) that have to be pre booked with DOC (department of conservation). Our first campsite (Brod Bay) was on the edge of a beach with was the shore of Lake Te anau which feeds into the South Sound. It was very peaceful at night but again we were bombarded by sandflies. These are horribe critters that pester you in huge numbers and repellant doesn't always work. They are small black flies that make no sound but have a very nasty bite, the bites itch beyond belief, far worse than any mosquito!
Due to this the minute we stopped walking (they can't keep up with you when moving)-great way to loose weight as you never want to stop walking! We had to put trousers on and long sleeves, tuck our t-shirts into our trousers so that there was no bare back showing and then keep swatting our hands and face! I never thought that I would happily slap myself repeatedly across the face but I did as it was my only defense. Dinner and breakfast would sometimes be eaten walking around in circles. When we shut up shop for the day and crawled into our tent, the first 10 mins or so was spent hunting down and squashing the sandflies on the interior part of our tent!-how romantic! Mornings were spent counting how many new bites we gained through the night!
Regardless of these blighters it really was spectaculor as the second part of the tramp opened up onto high mountain ridges of Alpine environment (grasses, bare rock, dry etc). Here the views were lovely and you could see the trail go on for miles and miles in front of you winding its way up and down the mountain ridges. At times this was a little intimidating as I have already mentioned in a past post that my feet had been crushed to bits by my walking boots and I had blisters the same size as the toes that they were on! Regardless of this, we shuffled/hobbled on and made it to the 2 nd nights campsite (Iris Lodge) the sandflies were worse here but it was a peaceful place to pop blisters and sleep beside a river and get ready for the next day!
Miles and miles of track still ahead of us!
The last day was walking through the valley and again twisting our way through the fern forests. I will admit that by then there was not a lot to look at other than the forest and it was a bit samey, with the added problem of my feet, I, at this point did want to reach the end, which took a long time coming. When we did reach it I crossed the same swing bridge over the same river and felt a great sense of achievement and relief! We made it!
Hurrah, at the top of the largest summit
We drove straight down to Lake Manapouri, a beautiful HUGE lake (we had walked around some of the edge on part of the Kepler trail) and waded in for our rinse off as by now we stunk! The water felt amazing, my legs wouldn't kick though as they were finished from the walk and so gentle floating was highly therapeutic. Two days later and my legs and feet were able to move again without any problems!
I would recommend this walk to people of a good fitness, who like uphill and have good comfy walking shoes and a lot of DEET (potent insect repellant)!
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