Our Family Travel Logs: December 2024

Magical Kepler trek in Fiordland National Park

In Dec 2023 we ventured to NZ staying in Queenstown at the Heritage exploring this glorious place we’ve visited a few times now. We did an e-bike tour just our family with ‘Ride to the Sky’ guided tours. We rode through farm land towards Shotover and Kawarau rivers, and along the beautiful lake Wakatipu and to Kelvin Peninsular. The surrounding mountains and the joy of speed made it a fantastic day out.

We also did the classic thrill ride Shot Over Jet Boat which was brilliant, and the TSS Earnslaw Cruise. The Edwardian coal fired steamship built in 1912, travels across Lake Wakatipu regularly to the working sheep farm at the end of the lake where we enjoyed a tour of the farm and gardens, a sheep dog demonstration and a lovely morning tea.

I always like a nice meal and wine so we planned a trip to Ayrburn in Arrowtown and had a special dinner at The Wool Shed. Also had another amazing experience at Amisfield Vineyard Vaughan Mabee’s restaurant specialising in local ingredients, we loved the grey rock like butter presented on a Japanese like box of cold grey rocks!

Our next stop was Te Anau the base of our hike on the Kepler Track in Fiordland.

The trek is a spectacular 3 to 4 day 61km loop hike with 3 main huts (Luxmore Hut, Iris Burn Hut and Moturau Hut) that have to be prebooked way in advance, unfortunately we missed out on the last nights hut as locals like to hike in just to this picturesque lake side hut for a easy family get away so our last day was a long walk out back to the car park at Rainbow Reach.

The hike is awesome it goes through Beech forests along the shores of Lake Te Anau then up to the ridge line and Luxmore Hut. Loved the cheeky Kea parrots who know how to open zippers on back packs and steal stuff. We were playing a game of cards on a table outside when one joined us and took off with the card box.

The hike then traverses the ridge line through the Fiordland National Park then descends to Iris Burn Hut – the knee and thigh burn stage. The traverse on the grassy rocky ridgeline is spectacular with amazing views, though we were walking through misty clouds and some rain it added to the atmosphere. At some points on the hike the ridge line is so narrow the earth falls away steeply either side.

The kids went on ahead frustrated by our pace and wanting to get good bunk beds together as it is first in first placed in all the huts, and at Iris Burn there is a sleeping platform so bodies line up side by side like grub cocoons so even more reason to get in early to secure a cluster of bunk beds together.

The walk out on day 3 from Iris Burn follows the river and is through some beautiful lush forests with verdant fern floors and amazing horse hoof fungi emerging from many trees.

We prearranged hiking gear and a car transfer from Kepler Track car park to Rainbow Reach with Easy Hike Co. which made it so hassle free for us.

After an exhausting trek and surviving on dehydrated food, we relished on our return to base in Te Anau the pizza at Ristorante Pizzerie Paradiso and a meal at the Redcliffe Café - a simple cottage which focuses on fare game meats, Oren and I had venison. We also did the Te Anau Glowworm Caves tour which is a boat ride across Lake Te Anau then a walk into the caves and a brief gliding cave boat ride to view the worms.

Hoping to get back to NZ for more hikes in the near future with the family.