The Great Runs No. 1: The Kepler

Last Friday I prepared to head up North to Collingwood to run the Heaphy track, however they had been experiencing heavy rain and the access to the track was impassable. The track would also have been sodden, slippery and flooded in places. I needed a new plan! Suprisingly enough, Fiordland appeared to have had the better deal as far as weather, so after checking this with DoC, I headed south to Te Anau to run the Kepler.
I drove all day, then slept in my car (rather uncomfortably as I had no roll mat or mattress!) in a backpacker car park (the back packers had closed by the time I got there). So after a poor nights sleep, I woke at 05.15 am, and drove to the start of the Kepler Track.
The Kepler is a 60.1KM track, with over 1000m of climb, reaching about 1500m over the Kepler Mountains in Fiordland. I ate a one square meal bar, and downed some powerade, before setting off at 06.20am. The morning light was beautiful over the lake, but I followed the track into the forest to begin the climb. A couple of hours later, and I emerged from the bush, onto the tops, yey! It was fairly over-cast, with a hint of light rain, but beautiful views all around. I reached luxmore hut (nearly 14km into the run) at 08.30hrs, and topped up my camelbak, which had been leaking down my back the whole way! I discovered that this was due to disruption of the seal, which I managed to sort, and avoid a long day of hydration drink splashing down my legs!!
Now for the best bit! After further climbing up to about 1500m, the track undulated along a narrow and exposed ridgeline, with spectacular views of fiordland. It felt good to be on gentler inclines and flat, although careful footing was a must, as a fall here could be serious. With a few photo stops and hellos to passing walkers, I plodded on, listening to tunes, and enjoying the view. After about 12km, the track descended abruptly and zig-zagged into the bush, entually reaching Iris Burn hut 14.6km on from Luxmore.
Iris Burn hut is tucked into the forest and is infested with sandflies! Well, everywhere here is, but they were in even more abundance here. I quickly made my way on, after a H2O top up. From Iris Burn Hut the whole way is in forest, something that I struggle with immensley, and still over 31km to go! But the way was gently undulating, and mainly downhill, and the day had gotten very hot, so there was much to be thankful for, the shade, and the lack of uphill mainly. I had managed to convince myself that I had less far to go than I actually had, thinking that after the next hut there was only about 15km to go. How wrong I was.....
As this had been a last minute decision, I had not really researched the track or known what to expect, so on reaching Motarau Hut, on a beautiful little beach on lake Manapouri, I was quite disheartened to read that the end was a six hour walk away, which would mean up to a three hour run in my state, not the hour and a half that I hoped for!
I somehow had phone reception here, so it was a saving grace to read a text from my friend Jane, saying good luck and our little motto...."keep calm, carry on". Oh, thank goodness for this little burst of positivity!! Thanks Jane!
So on I went, stopping only to bandage blisters and to drink. I hadn't managed to eat much, but tried to nibble on a OSM bar. NOT a good running food, made me want to vomit...at least I know for next time to take proper food. I was starving, and although running wasn't a problem, I began to feel the challenge mentally. The key, as always, was good tunes and switching off, and going into Sankey Land, the crazy little world in my head! I stopped to chat to a British couple, who lived in Berkhampstead, where I used to live. She was a nurse too, and they were here on holiday. Its little meetings like this that put you in a better frame of mind and keep you going.
I can not tell you how great the temptation was at Rainbow's Reach (9.5km to go!) to go into the car park and beg a lift back to the control gates! No one would ever know.... but I would, and I didn't want to have to come back and do this again when my conscience got the better of me. On, and on, and on I went throught the bush. I was nearing desperation when I saw a sign..... 1KM TO GO...LOOKING GOOD it said. Woo hoo, I can do this, come on, one last push....
And there were the control gates. I sat down, and leaned against the Kepler Track start/finish sign. From broken to happy in ten seconds! Oh the feeling to have done it! Its amazing how great you can feel, so soon after feeling so bad :-) I sent the obligatory "I'm alive" text to people, then got up to walk the two mins to the car. And then I realised how much this was going to hurt! I made two stops on the 3 hour drive home, and each time walking was a little harder.
Not much left to do but wash, eat and sleep......One down, 7 to go!!

Girl Power in the Matukituki!

Time to get back out into the mountains!
Last monday I picked my friend Laurayne up from Queenstown airport and we headed off to the start of our adventure - Wanaka. After leaving our intentions with DoC and hiring a locator beacon, we drove down the Aspiring road and along a long gravel track to Raspberry Flat. Leaving Freddie in the carpark, we heaved our 20KG packs onto our backs, and set off. We were carrying all our food and gear for 7 days of climbing in the high alpine peaks of the area. we walked as far as Apiring Hut, and set up our tent there. We practiced a bit of rope work and crevasse rescue, just in case!
Next morning we were up early and left some of our food at the hut, to save weight. We climbed over 1000m to Cascade Saddle, with early cloud clearing, giving us fantastic views of the surrounding mountains. We camped at cascade saddle, by a beautiful clear snow-melt river. The next morning (at 4.45am!!) we stuck our heads oout of the tent and were disappointed to find heavy cloud and poor visibility. We went back to sleep for an hour or so, then got up and decided to head up onto a ridge and navigate our way to the Isobel Glacier, in the hope that it would clear later and we could make a summit attempt at Mt Anstead (2388m). We used bearings to find our way, but approached the glacier in much improving visibility and blue skies. Anstead is a long day, and we thought it best not to be getting back off the Glacier too late (the sun makes the snow bridges over the crevasses weak, and there is more chance of falling through). So we headed for Mt Tyndall, a higher peak at 2496m, but closer. We dumped our packs at the head of the glacier and made our way up patches of loose rock and steep snow. We had a few false starts, finding ways to be impassable and unsafe, before finding a route of snow, and a final rock scramble to the summit. We were rewarded with astounding views of the Matukituki Valley and surrounding mountains.
Very happily, we plodded back to camp accross the glacier.
We had planned to climb Plunkett Dome, but its approach was steep and heaily crevassed, with many of the crevasses opening up due to a very warm November! So we made the slightly crazy choice to descend the 1000m to the valley floor, walk a few kms along the valley, and climb another 1000m up French Ridge! It was a long day, the temperature was approaching 30 degrees and we had very heavy packs again, although we each only took one ice-axe up here to save weight, and left a few bits of gear behind. It was a ten hour day, involving a river crossing and wet feet! French ridge is steep, which is hard with big packs, but at least you gain height quickly! We camped outside French Ridge Hut, and met the friendly warden there. It was stunning, well up out of the bushline with stunning mountains all around, and a view back up the valley to where we had walked from that morning!!
The next morning we were up at five to attempt the Quarter deck(2305m) and Mt French. The quarterdeck is a snow slope, leading up to the Bonar Glacier, over which Mt Aspiring presides. It is steep in places and quite heavily crevassed, but the snow was good and firm (thanks to our early morning start). We roped up for safety and had a good steady plod to the top. The view at the top was breathtaking. The Bonar Glacier was a vast, smooth carpet of snow, with Mt Aspiring rising graciously from it. There were snow capped mountains as far as the eye could see, the sun was bright and the sky was blue. Mt French had a big schrund cutting through our route, and was heavily corniced at the top, so we decided not to risk it. We negotiated our way back down the Quarterdeck and stopped for refreshment once we were safely back on rock. I then put on my waterproof trousers and slid down the snow on my bum back to camp - great fun! (and a legitimate mountaineering technique!!).
So being back down for lunchtime, we did what any self respecting mountaineer would do - we sat in the sun and ate all afternoon! We did so well at this, that our packs were much lighter for the descent, and we had no excess food to carry ;-)
The next day we packed up camp and headed down to the valley again. We enjoyed the walk out, down the lush and green Matukituki Valley. We rested a while at aspiring hut, before the last two hour slog. back at the car (again, 30 degree heat!) we were soooo glad to take off our boots, which were the only thing we had worn on our feet for the last week, and put on our flip-flops. We drove into wanaka, handed in our return slip, then sat in a cafe and ordered massive bowls of good, sweet coffee, and stuffed our faces with mozarella garlic bread and cheese muffins! Having not had a shower in a week, we cleared the cafe out pretty quick......
We then found a campsite (with showers) and got clean! When I say clean, we had no shower gel, so used leaves of travel soap, we had nothing to wash our hair with an no hairbrush, so we still looked pretty awful! But I had that post-hills alpine glow that no make up could ever replicate, and I was so happy and content. We wandered to the pub, in tracksuit bottoms and the cleanest thermal I could find. We drank beer, had fish and chips, then returned to the pub for more wine.... absolute bliss! We could stop talking about this trip, planning our next trip, and congratulaing each other on a successful week!
The next day the weather closed in, but we didn't care. I dropped Laurayne off for her return flight to Christchurch, both so happy, in a way that is only achieved from week of hard physical activity, in one of the most beautiful settings in the world......