Hiking the Kepler and Routeburn Track

Thursday 25th February:  Cloudy with drizzle turning into rain, but not cold at 12°C to 18°C 

Queenstown to Te Anau:  Bus Departed 10.45am,  arrived Te Anau 1.30 pm

A travelling day today with a bus to Te Anau where we'll be staying at the Lakefront Motel on teh shores of Lak ???, about 1k from town and 400 metres from the Department of Conservation, where we pick up our Kepler Track tickets, and 600 metres from the Te Anau Holiday Park where we catch the bus to the start of the Kepler track.  It's rained for mot of the day and we have a foreboding of a wet tramp.

At 8am, we all meet for breakfast of toast and peanut paste, porridge from the freebie bin and a hot cup of tea.  Then its time to do a final pack, put a bag full of cycling gear in the tin shed at the front of the hostel for collection when we return on March 4th after our Kepler and Routeburn hike, and walk into town to wait for the bus.  It's already spitting to rain and by the time we're on the Tracknet bus, it's raining heavily and does so all the way into Te Anau. 

The driver kindly drops us off outside the Lakefront Motel and we scurry across the road with all our gear to check in.  Our rooms, 27,28 and 29 have a garden view, not a lake view as we did last year when we stayed here, but they're large and comfy and warm and dry.  A hot cup of tea and cheese sandwich soon revives us.  I duck down the the DOC centre 400 metres down the road to pick up our Kepler tickets for the 3 nights in the huts, and I'm given the low-down on the weather - NOT GOOD!  Rain and gale force winds for the next few days.   I trek back to the motel to tell the others the good news.  Milton and filters the forecast with  "at least it won't be raining on Sunday - just windy".  

At 3pm, we hit the town and walk the 1.5k to the SuperChoice supermarket to re-stock - just incase we get stranded and need more food!! Jenny's decided she needs waterprrof gloves, and I'm seriously considering looking at another rainjacket.  After thoroughly testing my Millet jacket before we left home, I decided that the sweat that appeared on the inside was really rain from a leaky jacket.  I'll think about that one.

The first thing we spy inside the supermarket is the Backcountry dried food stand, where Graham and Jenny and Donna and Milton choose their dinner.  I had already bought a fe Back Country dried mince packets in Australia.  I like plain food with out the spices and herbs etc. An hour later we each have a basket full of goodies and we're out the door and into the rain.

Graham, Donna and Milton head off for coffee and Jenny Ian and me walk back to another sports store to check out gloves for Jenny.  The first thing we see at the front door is a Macpac stand with Mac in a Bag rain coats - and they're red!! And the XS fits me perfectly.  I'm sold!  $79 later I have a new rain jacket.  Jenny finds some gloves, and its back to the motel in the drizzly rain.

A cup of tea, re-pack, some time on the internet that doesn't work very well, and it's soon wine o'clock.  All 6 of us jam into our room to pick up the conversation where we left off last night.  An hour and  half later it's dinner time and we shuffle of to our rooms to cook our own meals with the personal touch of spices etc and return to eat and drink once again.  By 9pm we're done.  It's still drizzling outside, but not cold, and we um and ah about whether or not to do the 15k walk or take the bus a little further and do just a 6k walk to our first hut Moturau.  We'll see what tomorow brings