Qualla: Kepler Track

Kepler Track: Introduction

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nomad Tales, CC BY 2.1 au. Every December, runners line up at the shore of Lake Te Anau and sprint into the mountains. The fastest cover 60 kilometers in about five hours, racing along ridgelines where the wind can knock a standing person flat, through forests where the canopy blocks out the sky, and past rivers that swell to impassable torrents after a single afternoon of rain. The rest of the year, trampers take three or four days to walk what those runners cover before lunch. Both groups are following the Kepler Track, one of New Zealand's Great Walks, a circular route through Fiordland National Park that climbs from lakeside beech forest to exposed alpine tussock at 1,472 meters before dropping back to the water's edge. The track is named for the Kepler Mountains, which take their name from Johannes Kepler, the 17th-century astronomer. He never saw this place, but the night skies above the ridgeline would have stopped him in his tracks.

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Image: Nomad Tales | CC BY 2.1 au

Kepler Track: From Lakeshore to Treeline

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Glen Fergus, CC BY-SA 2.5. The track begins gently, following the eastern shore of Lake Te Anau through stands of tall beech forest. Mosses coat every surface, ferns crowd the understory, and bellbirds call from somewhere overhead. At Brod Bay, many trampers arrive by water taxi, shaving a couple of hours ...

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Image: Glen Fergus | CC BY-SA 2.5

Kepler Track: Walking the Ridgeline

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Michal Klajban, CC BY-SA 4.0. Above the bushline, the Kepler Track becomes a different experience entirely. For roughly 15 kilometers, the path traverses exposed alpine ridges where the views stretch across the entirety of Fiordland on a clear day, from the silver surface of Lake Te Anau to the east to the da...

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Image: Michal Klajban | CC BY-SA 4.0

Kepler Track: The Kea Problem

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Michal Klajban, CC BY-SA 4.0. Somewhere above the treeline, you will meet the kea. New Zealand's alpine parrot is brilliant, curious, and spectacularly destructive. These birds have been known to unzip backpacks, shred boots left outside huts, tear apart rain jackets, and disassemble anything held together wi...

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Image: Michal Klajban | CC BY-SA 4.0

Kepler Track: Descent to the Iris Burn

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Stevage, CC BY-SA 4.0. From the alpine section, the track drops through a hanging valley to Iris Burn Hut, following the river as it cascades down toward Lake Manapouri. The descent passes through some of the most pristine forest on the track, thick podocarp and beech woodland where the only sounds are...

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Image: Stevage | CC BY-SA 4.0