New Zealand is such a small country we were able to drive almost the width of the South Island in well under a day! We pulled into our spot at Te Anau and were treated to an awesome sunset right from the camper!
The next morning we hiked Rainbow Reach, along the Kepler Track, over the river to a marsh. This river is a Lord of the Rings filming location, but sadly, I didn’t recognize anything.
There are so many green ferns, moss, mushrooms and evergreen trees, it’s almost overwhelming at first.
The sign said this was a particularly nutrient-poor marsh, but you can’t tell from the colors!
New Zealand has no endemic predators, or even mammals for the most part, which is why there are so many land birds. I also like to think it’s why the birds aren’t afraid of us. We had multiple of these little guys come right up to us.
Our first hike was a nice warm up to our second. We hiked along the Kepler track again, from the lake to the Luxmore Hut and back. The Kepler track is one of the 9 New Zealand Great Walks, which we really wanted to check out. This section of it was pretty tough, and is the longest hike we’ve attempted so far! We started with the sun in the morning, which is an unusually early start for us.
The trail starts in a beech beach forest, which quickly climbs into a fern gully like environment – with fern trees! As we got closer to the tree line, we were surrounded by limestone bluffs and hanging moss.
We were about 5 minutes from turning around and descending (we were tired and nearing our half-way time) when we came around a corner and were suddenly beyond the tree line. Such an amazing moment and view when we came out of the trees.
The water below is a fiord!
We walked along the alpine meadow for a while, taking in the mountain top views, before again deciding to turn around after the next corner. Turns out the Luxmore Hut we were aiming for was just past that corner! The “hut” is for the trampers doing the Kepler track, and was a very welcome sight. We just barely made it! It was an amazing feeling to come out of the gale-force wind gusts and eat some lunch inside before heading back. 
While we were inside, it started to snow fairly hard (and rain at lower elevations). So we were treated to some rainbows on the way back to the forest. By the time we went to bed, we’d walked 20 miles and gained (then lost) about 3,000 feet in elevation! We were pooped.
Te Anau also has a bird sanctuary, which includes 3 Takahe! There’s only ~300 of them left, so it was pretty cool to see some. They’re a land-bird endemic to New Zealand that are like a chicken-toucan mix. Unfortunately, we didn’t bring our telephoto lens, so no really cool pictures…
Outside Te Anau, on our rest day, we drove up to Mirror Lakes and Te Anau downs to do some short walks. We decided against going to Milford Sound because there was bad weather coming in. On the way back to Te Anau, we made hot soup in the camper van while enjoying awesome scenery, at a random roadside pull-off. New Zealand is amazing.
We ended the day staying up late to watch the Royal Wedding in the Holiday Park lounge. Some things are inescapable.
Highlights of Fiorlands and Te Anau
- The Kepler Track. It would be amazing to do the whole 4 day tramp, but just getting to the Luxmore Hut was fantastic.
- Swinging bridges across epic rivers
- Sunsets and sun rises over the lake(s)
Hiking through so many different surroundings on that 20-mile trek must have been breathtaking. It’s hard to imagine what it would be like to go from fern forests into snowfall and then back all in one day. The photos are stunning!
It’s crazy even just looking back now haha