New Zealand has 9 hikes known as the Great Walks, multi-day hikes designed for tourists that showcase the beauty of the country. We signed up for the Kepler Great Walk in the south-west of New Zealand. These Great Walks are immensely popular, so we had to book the accommodation in advance, and still had trouble finding spots in the huts. The huts are like backpacker dorms with shared bathrooms and bunk beds, only they're the only thing around, unless you have your own tent of course. So, we had booked the Kepler, but had a few days in Fiordland before the hike. We decided to practice our overnight hiking and chose to do the Green Lake Track. We read it was a two day hike, 6 hours each way, well marked, with a (green) lake at the top. Sounded like an easy practice trip, seeing as how the Kepler was 4 days. Little did we know...
Here we are, naive, happy to be starting our journey.
Beautiful mushrooms dotted the forest floor.
The trail looked great! I had read online that the first hour was "deceptively easy", but we paid this no mind.
Wood Robins were curious about our presence - they tried to eat our shoelaces, I guess because they look like worms! New Zealand was a predator free island before people came and ruined everything, therefore many of the bird species never learned to be afraid. This little guy displayed only curiosity and hunger.
A little further on - lovely bridged path over slightly wet ground.
Another curious Wood Robin guiding us along.
A stream crossing - the path gets tricker, but not that bad...
Yet another friend!
After the first hour and a half the going got hard. The path was always well marked, except where landslides had taken out whole sections of the path. We only got lost once, for about 15 minutes.
Felled trees also made the process difficult.
The track was partly so tricky because it had rained a whole lot the night before, and in many places the road had turned to mud. Bridge platforms were only present for the first few kilometers. As you can see by my shoes and socks, our feet were quickly soaked and covered with mud. Oh, and the track was almost entirely uphill.
The stream crossings also got crazy - at times we had to hang on to tree branches, cross over logs, hop on partly submerged rocks.
On top of it all, the fog rolled in, making it harder to see trail markers.
But it looked so cool!
The last bit of the track went through grasses. This part was absolutely beautiful - but unfortunately it had turned into a swamp, and the fog made the trail markers very hard to locate. I did not take any pictures as it was getting dark and we were rushing to get to the hut.
After 9 grueling hours, we arrived at the Green Lake hut. Needless to say, I was ecstatic!!!
Fog rolling in - Caryl soaked his aching feet and knees in the freezing water.
The magical hut. It has space for 12, but we shared it with only 3 other people, an older couple from Long Island, of all places, and a Frenchman named David. The couple had come in on a different, shorter track, but they were also beat. David was a pro - he had passed us on the way up. He had done the track in only 4 hours, and had started to worry about us. He was in New Zealand on extended holiday, writing a book about nature and hiking I believe. He had proper hiking boots and special pants, and a better physique that made it all easier. Nevertheless, I was proud of us for making it to the top. Not that we had much choice, really, I wasn't about to head back in the dark.
View from the hut the next morning.
The stunning, swampy area, looking very different without the fog.
Spectacular views of Lake Monowai.
The only picture we took of the "path". This was not the worst part.
The worst part was knee deep mud in the higher elevations, note my pants and Caryl's left sock.
We made it back! Upon reflection, the Green Lake hike was awesome and amazing, and I'm so glad we did it! I would recommend it, and might even do it again (though I may wait for a day with less rain).
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