Kepler Track Day 2

Started the day with a trek up from Luxmore Hut. What an amazing view behind.

Today was a day for walking in the open.

A great view of the Southern Fjord.

Very pretty greenery.

In the first two hours you climb another 400 metres or so.

After the climb then you descend 200 metres to Forest Burn Shelter. Very welcome to have morning tea.

Once again more great views of the Southern Fjord.

The path moves along

And then up again.

The second day was harder than the first day, something the maps didn’t indicate.

The day is 400 m up, 200 m down, 400 m up, then 900 m down.

It lightly rained during the day, giving us a nice rainbow.

Along the ridgeline, rather windy.

And then we get to Hanging Valley Shelter. A nice place for lunch.

Then it is down the ridgeline.

You then leave the ridgeline and get some beautiful enchanted forest.

The bad part though is it is a giant zig-zag down. You drop almost a km through 48 ziz-zags. The legs are in constant braking mode and were sore form days afterwards.

But very beautiful.

You then hit a river.

Across the bridge.

Now down in the valley.

Around half an hour through the forest (and another dozen zig-zags or so)

And finally at Iris Burn Hut. We started at 8.45 am and got there around 3.30 pm.

Around the front of the hut.

Nice place to sleep but very cramped in the dining room.