text and photos: Xavier
datasheet:
Distance - 8,60km
Distance - 8,60km
Height gain - 300m
Height lost - 300m
Altitude Max - 623m
Altitude min - 367m
Type - loop
Effective walk: 2h30m
Degree of difficulty- T1
track: here
video of the day
The day after we took a private bus to Te Anau at 7 a.m. , (49NZD per personne), don’t forget to buy the ticket the day before, it’s mandatory, Te Anau is the “base camp” of all the Great Walks in the Fiordlands, a trip of 2h15m where we had a taste of the beauty of this country.
At Te Anau the first stop was the Visitors Centre of the National Park where there was a lot of people, all the three Great Walks had sections that were closed due to fresh snow and high avalanche risk, so everyone was in panic, very quickly we knew that our plan A was not gonna work, there was 70cm of fresh snow at the highest section of the Kepler track(1400m), so the track will take some time to re-open.
30 minutes later we were already searching for another way to return to Queenstown to rent a camping car, our plan B, probably was possible to rent one at Te Anau but it will be, for shure, much more expensive.
One hour and a half after arriving at Te Anau we’re already leaving, we went straight to the airport to rent a Jucy Campervan, if you have the possibility, financially speaking, don’t hesitate and rent a camping car, we rent for 11 days, until the end of our vacations, a Toyota Chaser with toilet and shower, total with assurance stress free was about 3200NZD(1850€), which of course is quite expensive, but if you’re planning a trip to New Zealand be prepared to spend some money.
After picking up our van we were ready to face our first experience of driving on the left side of the road, very weird the first hours, and a lot of fun of course.
Once it was already 4 p.m. , I drove a little north of Queenstown to do a hike before ending the day, we did the Mount Crichton loop track, a nice two hour hike in the forest.
After the hike we went sleep to Te Anau, you can be very independent with a camping car but you will have to sleep at designated places otherwise you may get a fine, we arrived at Te Anau at almost 11 p.m. , had dinner at the only place that was opened, something called Branch, i did not memorise the name because it was a horrible experience, the worst of our vacations.
After that bad experience we headed 20km north of Te Anau to the Henry Creek parking, in this type of parkings you do your inscription yourself, it costs 15NZD per person and someone from the National Park will pass the day after to verify at 7 a.m.
A very intense day for the beginning of our vacations, as we loved!
rats, the biggest problem to the local fauna
Degree of difficulty- T1
track: here
video of the day
The day after we took a private bus to Te Anau at 7 a.m. , (49NZD per personne), don’t forget to buy the ticket the day before, it’s mandatory, Te Anau is the “base camp” of all the Great Walks in the Fiordlands, a trip of 2h15m where we had a taste of the beauty of this country.
At Te Anau the first stop was the Visitors Centre of the National Park where there was a lot of people, all the three Great Walks had sections that were closed due to fresh snow and high avalanche risk, so everyone was in panic, very quickly we knew that our plan A was not gonna work, there was 70cm of fresh snow at the highest section of the Kepler track(1400m), so the track will take some time to re-open.
30 minutes later we were already searching for another way to return to Queenstown to rent a camping car, our plan B, probably was possible to rent one at Te Anau but it will be, for shure, much more expensive.
One hour and a half after arriving at Te Anau we’re already leaving, we went straight to the airport to rent a Jucy Campervan, if you have the possibility, financially speaking, don’t hesitate and rent a camping car, we rent for 11 days, until the end of our vacations, a Toyota Chaser with toilet and shower, total with assurance stress free was about 3200NZD(1850€), which of course is quite expensive, but if you’re planning a trip to New Zealand be prepared to spend some money.
After picking up our van we were ready to face our first experience of driving on the left side of the road, very weird the first hours, and a lot of fun of course.
Once it was already 4 p.m. , I drove a little north of Queenstown to do a hike before ending the day, we did the Mount Crichton loop track, a nice two hour hike in the forest.
After the hike we went sleep to Te Anau, you can be very independent with a camping car but you will have to sleep at designated places otherwise you may get a fine, we arrived at Te Anau at almost 11 p.m. , had dinner at the only place that was opened, something called Branch, i did not memorise the name because it was a horrible experience, the worst of our vacations.
After that bad experience we headed 20km north of Te Anau to the Henry Creek parking, in this type of parkings you do your inscription yourself, it costs 15NZD per person and someone from the National Park will pass the day after to verify at 7 a.m.
A very intense day for the beginning of our vacations, as we loved!
