Iris Burn hut → Rainbow Reach car park — 22.2 km.
I slept straight through the morning and only wake up when my friend woke me.
My feet felt much better, and the good news is the remaining track is quite easy.
Nothing much about the forecast, there was a shower when we left the hut and it was overcast the whole morning, other than that everything was fine.
We first were passing through a low saddle and going down to Rocky Point.
It was halfway to the Maturau hut, we took a short break to have lunch.
The water was really cool, we enjoyed a few moments of sunshine as the clouds went away.
After that, there was a large slip that formed by heavy rain in 1984.
As we passed through the podocarp forest one of our group members started to get throbbing feet, one of his feet got swollen a little, he must hold it in from all the downhill walk yesterday.
We gave him a couple of aspirin to reduce the pain, everyone slowed down so he could catch up.
Fortunately, the track was mainly flat and he also got trekking poles.
We enjoyed the changes in the landscape, also came across a lot of "caves" formed by the roots and trees.
It was fascinating to think of them as Hobbit houses like in the series "The Hobbit".
On the North Island, they have the whole Hobbiton village, where the movie is set, I have never been there though.
Podocarp forests are a mixture of tall podocarps and smaller trees (hardwoods) with an understorey of shrubs, plants, and ferns. Light-loving podocarps reach for the forest canopy, while shade-tolerant species thrive in the darker lower levels. source
We were walking along the shore of Lake Manapouri and there it was Moturau hut.
The hut looks right into the bay, with an amazing view of the crystal clear water, it couldn't be in a better location than this, imagine you could stay here at the weekends, wouldn't it be perfect?
The sun was coming out, lots of hikers have already arrived and gathered on the deck to take in the fresh air and light breeze of a great afternoon.
We explored the hut and surrounding area for a while, it was still early when we reached there and my friend was feeling better, so we decided to keep going and head to Rainbow Reach carpark, then we would take a lift from there to Kepler track car park.
The last 6 km
We headed to the forest just after leaving the hut.
Then, we walked into an open wet land area.
I was intrigued by it as this was the first time I saw such a large area of wet land in real life, it is very well-preserved.
We soon headed back to the forest before passing a swing bridge at the Rainbow Reach.
It was a mixed feeling walking along the bridge knowing that we almost finished and this was also the last part of our journey here.
Finally, we made it, it was a long day, and we were a bit tired, but everyone felt like we could achieve anything.
We started from Kepler track carpark, finished 50.6 km of the track, and made it a 3-day walk instead of 4 days. We walked through numerous terrains, experienced all kinds of weather conditions, it was terrifying at times, but mostly satisfying as we were rewarded with a breathtaking view of mountain ranges, refreshing forest and above all, overcome ourselves, that is the most precious thing after each journey.
Have your been here? The Kepler Track is one of the popular Great Walks if you visit New Zealand.
The peak season is from late October to April as the rest of the year is wintertime and the weather could be severe if you are not well-equipped and experienced.
Please visit DOC for more information about booking the hut the track notice.
This is the last day of my series "Kepler track".
If you like it, have a look and PART 1 and PART 2.
Thanks for reading! Have a lovely day!