New Zealand left the rest of the world before mammals evolved. Their usual evolutionary niches were filled by birds who quit flying and started foraging on the ground. When people came to New Zealand for the first time, about 1000 years ago, they brought with them a number of mammals that changed the balance of the ecosystem. Rats, dogs, cats and possums either competed with the native species or hunted them. Flightless birds in particular, were sitting ducks. One of the most damaging introduced species was the stoat, a weasel-like little guy about the size and color of a chipmunk. They run wild in Fiordland, and the survival of a few colorful bird species hangs in the balance. The Takahe and Cacapo are particularly close to the brink, with only about 100 of each species left in the wild. The kiwi is in slightly better shape, but the stoats don't help. The upshot is that even the most fervent environmentalists don't object to the trapping of stoats using what are basically big mouse traps. These are distributed every few hundred meters along the tracks, baited with chicken eggs. Anyhow, that's the official line on stoats: "the only good stoat is a dead stoat".
We passed through Queenstown on our way to the Kepler track, but didn't stay long. First thing in the morning we headed on to Te Anau, gateway to Fiordland National park. This is the least developed part of NZ, and that's saying something. The town sits on the shore of a huge glacial lake, with views of the Kepler Range beyond (yes, actually named after Johannes Kepler, father of the laws of planetary motion).
The Kepler track is a loop track from Te Anau, about 60 km long. It is only about 30 years old, and the track is in amazing condition. It goes to show the difference that good trail management can make. The first day involves a climb up above treeline, located very low at around 1000 meters here. What we hadn't counted on was the rain. It turns out that Fiordland gets a huge amount of rain, about 7 meters per year at Milford Sound. The day we headed out on the bus to Te Anu, we learned that they had received more rain the previous day at Milford than Queenstown gets in 6 months. That made us nervous. Sure enough, it was pouring as we headed out on the Kepler Track.
Our first night was at Luxmore hut, and the rain cleared up in the evening, providing great views of Lake Te Anau. We did our best to dry our stuff out. In the morning, we were treated to a great sunrise. We were advised to 'run over the mountain' before the rain started again. We started off, climbing further into the alpine tussock, and soon found ourselves traversing a series of ridges, from one peak to the next. The sun came and went, but it never rained much, and we saw some amazing rainbows.
Sun!
No sun ):
In the afternoon, the wind picked up, and just as we dropped below treeline, the rain started again. We hurried on to the Iris Burn Hut.
Yellow plastic pack-liner: A must.Day three was all rain again. We didn't take the camera out to take any pics, but we did spot a stoat tail sticking out of trap 79. Score one for the flightless birds!
When we woke up on the last morning, the weather had finally broken, and we had great views of Lake Manapouri from the Motarau hut. The level stroll through moss-covered beach forest with the sun sending rays of light between the trees was really beautiful. We spent the rest of the day back at the hostel relaxing... and playing volleyball with some Israelis we met on the track.
Wow, that looks like a fantastic hike (despite the weather)!
ReplyDeleteIt was great, especially because of the lack of people compared to the hikes we do in NH where there are hordes of people clogging up the trail.
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