2024 New Zealand: December 25th - Te Anau to Luxmore Hut

 We got up early and by putting my carryon in the big luggage we managed to get everything into the car after breakfast. We drove out to the parking spot we planned to leave the car by the Kepler water taxi (scouted out the previous day), and walked over to  the Kepler water taxi where the staff member appeared to be fueling up the boat. A light drizzle started from the cloudy skies above us, making us feel as though the rain forecasted for 1:00pm was going to hit us early.

We were the only folks who were booked for the water taxi. However, since the taxi was willing to take walkups, we still could not leave before the designated time of 9:30am. The ride, such as it was, only took 15 minutes, but it being the day with the heaviest backpack I was sure it was the correct choice.

The water taxi dropped us off at the beach with no formal pier, slip, or dock, with the driver basically beaching the bow of the boat and then deploying a step-ladder to enable us to get off. We jumped off the beach and after the water-taxi told us how to join the Kepler track, she picked up a couple of passengers who were waiting for her and then left.

From Brod Bay, where the taxi dropped us off the Kepler track immediately starts climbing. It’s not a challenging climb by any means, but with a pack, the very same folks who talked about how light their backpack was the night before started complaining about weight. Everyone got warm enough that we got out of our rain gear and put it away, trusting the tree cover to protect us from all but the occasional raindrops.  Bowen kept asking to check the map about where we were, but at the Limestone Bridge he dropped the map into the crevasse, resolving the need to ever ask me how far it was to the Luxmore Hut from then on.

Once we cleared out of the treeline we found that the earlier clouds had dissipated and we started getting some sunshine!  The views were great, letting us see to the limits of Te Anau lake, with enough low cloud to make everything look mysterious. We walked along the track and a Kea came by looking for food. It was clearly inured to people, though when we finally started to shoot a video of it it flew away.

Arriving at the hut, we were amongst the first to arrive, and we discovered that checking in was failry straightforward --- there was a paper form where you would write down your name, your reservation number, and which bed # you’d chosen, and the ranger would mark attendance (like in grade school) and potentially send out search parties for folks who didn’t arrive like they should. Since we were first, we had a great choice of beds and got picked the smaller bunk room.

We had already eaten lunch on the road, but we made a hot drink and then decided to go explore the caves. I dug out the headlamps but for some dumb reason couldn’t find the flashlight, which later resurfaced. We took the 15 minute walk to the cave, found the entrance stairwell, and walked in. It was indeed very dark, but what kept us from going deeper wasn’t the darkness or the limitation of Xiaoqin and my phone’s flashlight function, but that the ceiling got low enough that we’d have to start crawling and getting our shirts dirty. Even the kids couldn’t get past that last low ceiling so we turned around and walked back out.

With that, we spent the rest of the day playing Hearts and other card games until dinner time. People kept arriving through all that time, and the cooking and the stoves created so much humidity that the windows got fogged up. The clouds were getting denser, however, so it wasn’t as though there was a lot to see.

At 6:30pm the hut ranger gave his talk, with a very nice weather forecast. “It’ll be cloudy but when you can see the visibility will be quite good. And actually, it’s much nicer to hike in the clouds --- you do not want full sun as it will be quite hot without any kind of tree cover between here and Iris Burn hut.” It was a very generous hut ranger, telling us not to clean up tomorrow, as he would do the cleaning, and also that the tap had perfect drinking water and you didn’t really need to treat it before drinking. (We did it anyway, and both the other huts on the Kepler track also had their hut wardens declare that they drank from the tap all the time with no health issues)

After that, we got the kids to brush their teeth. It looked like the forecasted rain was finally going to arrive, so we hustled to bed and went to sleep before anyone else in our room could start snoring.