Te Anau & Mount Luxmore

We arrived in Te Anau early from Queenstown giving us plenty of time to set up camp, take a short walk by the lake, and explore the small town.

The next morning we were up at 6am, as we had a long day ahead of us. We had decided to walk the first section of the 'Kepler Track'; Mount Luxmore and back. The plan was to walk from the Control Gates to Luxmore Hut, but having arrived here in under half the advertised time, we decided to make for the summit. It was grey and misty as we came out of the treeline but as soon as we reached the top, at exactly midday, the sun came out and gave us some magnificent views.

It was cold on the top too (hence Jen's new Eskimo look). We didn't want to get too cold so we had a quick lunch, took a few pictures and started the descent. It wasn't until halfway back that we started to feel quite tired, and the last few kilometres were a real struggle. When we got back to the car we were shattered. We worked out how far we had walked in the nine hours since our departure and realised that it was at least 35kms (22 miles)!

We went back to the campsite and had a well deserved shower and some nice cold beers! Next stop...Milford Sound