After our trip to Doubtful Sound, we headed half an hour inland to a 3 bedroom house near Mavora Lakes. It was out in farm country, with no internet and no cell coverage, and no other homes in sight.  Our hosts owned the farm next door, doing dairy farming, with some pet sheep and some chucks (local name for chickens) living out our front door.  It was nice to have some room to spread out in, as we’ve been living for three months in very tight quarters, but we could only connect with the world when we drove back into Te Anau. We were provided with fresh raw milk and fresh eggs from the “chucks” in the yard.

Our house in the country.

In New Zealand, they have designated 9 multi-day hikes as “Great Walks”, and they, and the track huts, are extremely popular.  On our first day out at Mavora Lakes, we drove back to Te Anau and did a portion of the Kepler Track, starting from Rainbow Reach.  This was our first Great Walks experience and we were a bit surprised at the boulevard that awaited us.  It was a beautiful walk through a dense beech forest where EVERYTHING was covered in a briliant, light green moss blanket.  I think it is spagnum moss and it was incredibly thick.  This was clearly a popular route, with both day hikers and backpackers, and it took us out to Lake Manapouri for a beautiful view.  The day had been threatening rain all day but we avoided getting wet with just a sprinkle or two.  The path itself was wide and completely smooth, covered in little beech leaves, so no need to be looking at your feet.

The next day we drove back up toward Milford Sound to hike up to Key Summit.  We started on the Routeburn Track, another one of the Great Walks, again on  a big wide, smooth path but going steadily up, and then diverged to go up to Key Summit.  From there the views were amazing and there was a nature walk loop with a laminated sheet explaining various things along the loop. This too was a very popular walk and we were hardly alone but the views were fabulous.  This area was used by the Maori for supplying greenstone, what we call jade, which they used for decorative jewelry and for some mean looking clubs to be used against their neighbors.  On the way down, we noticed the green color of the rock next to the trail and wondered what it would look like once polished.  Once back at the house, Spencer took advantage of the host’s invitation to hand feed the sheep some weird nuggets, and both Spencer and the sheep seemed to enjoy this.  I believe the hosts provide the nuggets for their guests’ kids to use for feeding the sheep, but ever the kid, Spencer couldn’t resist.

There was a short nature walk at Key Summit.