Hike: 11km

Sadly we're writing this some time after the day itself so this is the best we can dredge from our memories but it was a cool walk so we should manage ok...

The first day of the Kepler Track, one of New Zealand's Great Walks was very short for us as we were camping at Brod Bay, just around the southern end of Lake Te Anau from Te Anau town. We killed the morning by packing up our rucksacks and checking emails etc. When I checked out from the YHA the lady on reception there warned me that DOC were turning people back from the tramp due to a severe weather warning of snow. "That'll be exciting!" I said as I stood there dressed in my shorts, vest top and trainers. She looked at me very crossly and said I should take ice axes and crampons if we had them. We don't. When we left the hostel we had to sneak past her, in our trainers to avoid being told off.

It was a beautiful day when we set off for our hike and was difficult to believe that snow was forecast for this evening. We walked alongside the lake to the DOC Great Walks office. As we were worried that DOC would try and stop us going, in our trainers, sans ice axes, I sat on a bench by the lake with the telltale backpacks whilst Scott went into the office to check out the most recent weather forecast. The forecast was still for snow tonight but we were only camping at about 200m above sea level so we new we'd be ok and would reconsider whether to tackle the alpine section on day two when we woke up.

The walk round the lake to Brod Bay was lovely. We passed through the bird park again and past the lake water flow control gates between Lakes Te Anau and Manapouri. Scott's knee was a little sore and he was worried about the tramp so he bought Desmond the manuka stick as tramping companion. They quickly became good friends.

At the campsite we found that our $10 per person bought us a pit toilet, a cooking shelter with no walls, an entire lake of drinking water, millions of sandflies and beautiful views. We put Peggy up in a sheltered spot under the trees, covered ourselves in Aeroflot and cooked dinner. We went to bed really early to escape the little pests. When we put our heads down there was no sign of the snow forecast.