Kepler Track: $300, Food: $150, No View: priceless - Te Anau, New Zealand (kepler track blog)

A TripAdvisor™ TripWow video of a travel blog to Te Anau, New Zealand by TravelPod blogger Sarahandaaron. See this TripWow and more at tripwow.tripadvisor.com Kepler Track: $300, Food: $150, No View: priceless "First off: No pictures until we get to James and Linda’s again because internet cafes lack USB ports. Sorry. I'll let you know when I get pictures up. Well, we arrived in the absolutely beautiful town of Te Anau leaving behind noisy and not-so-attractive Invercargill. Once again we had a harrowing bus ride in between. I swear these bus services hire former Boy Racers. Te Anau is small and nestled against Lake Te Anau and Fiordland national park. The backpackers we're staying at has a great view of the lake and mountains. However we made two mistakes here. We decided to hike the Kepler Track, famous for it's stunning views. First mistake: the Kepler is a Great Walk, and almost EVERYONE who comes to New Zealand seems to hike it, so it was crowded and expensive. Mistake Two: Didn't check the weather report. Those stunning mountain views from the ridge we had heard about got buried in clouds and rain 5 days ago and is still that way. So what we saw from the ridge was about 20 feet of tussock and then solid white clouds. But we had plenty of food this time! We spent 2 nights at the first hut, Luxmore Hut after a steep climb up through beech forest (I half expected to see elves; straight out of Lord of the Rings). There were 47 other people with us there the first night ...

Channel: YouTube Video Length: 1m 6s Date Found: Sat, Jan 22 2011 6:22 PM Category: Travel Date Produced: Sat, Jan 22 2011 5:54 PM View Count: 0