This morning we woke up after a very cold night at Luxmore Hut on the Kepler Track, to a thick layer of snow outside, around 20cm about the hut according to the DOC ranger.
After breakfast he came to do his weather report, which was for snow, and gales. He surprised us by annoucing that the track was closed between here and the Iris Burn Hut. He said he couldn't stop anyone going on but they should only proceed if they were well equipped.
Amanda and I decided we would not carry on but would go for a 'reccy' and walk a bit further up the track without our packs on. It was snowing and the furhter up we got the thicker the snow was. Also the wind was stronger and bitterly cold on our faces. We were sure it was the right decision to turn around. Our gloves were already wet through and we didn't have enough layers to keep replacing wet ones to keep warm. Our boots were also not particularly waterproof and there was a 5 hour walk ahead. Instead we enjoyed the snow for a while and took lots of photos!
We walked back down and only 45 minutes from the hut, reached the treeline. Only ten minutes further down and the snow was gone, replaced with rain and it was already feeling warmer.
We walked out in around 3 hours and caught a bus back to lakeview in Te Anau. Again, luckily they had a room for us for the night and it was back to the washing machine and the drying room with our boots and packs!
