2024 New Zealand: December 26th - Luxmore Hut to Iris Burn Hut

 I woke up in the morning discovering that I’d slept 10 hours! I guess the jet lag had finally caught up with me! By all accounts the second day on the Kepler track is the most beautiful, and hence the most desirous of good weather. The kids got up as well, and we ate our breakfast quickly before packing up and departing around 8:00am. To my relief when we stepped outside, the sun had came out and the Luxmore hut looked gorgeous bathed in the morning sun. 

We took several pictures, started our GPS units, and stared hiking up to Mt. Luxmore. We went up to a ridge and around a lake and to our dismay, discovered a layer of fog rolling in. We pressed on, having no choice, hoping for better weather at the summit. At the turnoff for the summit, Boen chose to eat his freeze-dried ice cream sandwich, so we waited for him, there being no point hurrying to get to the top in the fog. 

Once Boen was done we hiked up the summit with our backpacks, having been warned by the ranger the night before that to abandon your packs meant that the Kea would unzip any zippers and get at your food. (Those birds have the intelligence of a 4 year old, which is sufficient to know how to use zippers) We met Udi, a traveler from Israel, and arrived with him at the top in the fog. Within 3 minutes the weather cleared up and we had brief, momentary glimpses of the surrounding countryside, though not of far off peaks. We rapidly took pictures before descending. For the rest of the day, the clouds and fog would play peek-a-boo with us, usually giving us a square frame with which to view Te Anau Lake, but occasionally granting us other views. Boen discovered that his Fenix 5X had slipped off his wrist. We looked around but realized that he’d probably dropped it much earlier in the day. “Maybe some other hiker will find it. We can ask at the next hut,” said Udi. 

We walked the ridge in wonder, enjoying the scenery as it came, and taking pictures frequently, knowing that this was the most spectacular day and it was ok for us to run out of battery for the other days. 

At the Forest Burn shelter, we stopped for lunch. There, another hiker came up to us and told us that he’d heard from Udi that we’d lost a GPS watch! “Now I don’t have to carry it all the way to the hut,” he said. Boen tied it to the hiking stick so he wouldn’t lose it in the future. In exchange, we gave him a couple of slices of cheese. The story told of the Forest Burn Shelter was that the toilet door had blown off in a storm. “Now that we have a national party government there’s no chance it’ll be fixed any time soon.” He continued to tell us that as a result, this was a toilet with a fantastic panoramic view, but in exchange, you had to ensure that there was a heavy rock on the toilet lid. “Without the rock,” he elaborated, “there’s a pair of Keas that have learned to enjoy the leftover corn and other indigestible in the stools of various hikers. That’s kinda disgusting by itself, but if the bird gets in and the lid falls over it, the bird has no way to get out! Then the next time some poor hiker tries to use the toilet the Kea will fly out and flap his wings and he or she will get some pretty disgusting stuff all over her. So do everyone a favor and keep the rock on the toilet lid when you’re done!” With that kind of setup, Bowen and Boen were enthusiastic about checking out the toilet and the famous rock on it. 

Past Forest Burn shelter, the walk took you up and down various ridges, all with beautiful views of Te Anau lake (which we saw) and surrounding mountains (which we only occasionally glimpsed). The day was beautiful and we were in no hurry. Once we got to the Hanging Valley Shelter, it was deeply overcast and we started to walk down a series of steps before the corner which would lead back down into the treeline. From there, we could see Lake Manapouri. 

The ranger had warned us the night before that this last descent to the Iris Burn hut takes longer than you would expect. And indeed it did. By the time we got there, my GPS had registered 10.88 miles. We were amongst the last folks to show up at the hut, so ended up having to sleep in the top bunk of the smallest bunkhouse. We made dinner and ate it, but decided to skip the hut briefing for a chance to swim at the Iris Burn waterfall, which was a 20 minute walk from the hut. 

We arrived at the waterfall—not having a pack made the walk much easier compared to the rest of the day, but it was quite full of sandflies. I got into the water, but it was so cold I immediately got back out. Neither of the kids wanted to bother. I guess it’s a bit of a waste of time. We were exhausted, and pretty much went to bed right after returning to the hut and asking the ranger what we’d missed. She told us it was mostly a safety briefing, and that the latest shuttle from the exit tomorrow if we decided we wanted to just finish the hike instead of staying at the last hut was at 4:30pm. I charged Boen’s watch with my battery bank and went to sleep.