I arrived in Te Anau saturday and my plans were to go the next day to Milford Sound for a cruise and then to the Kepler track on tuesday.

I went to the DOC (Department of Conservation) to book my 3 huts. The Milford Track was completely booked and I tried several times to check for cancellations but to no avail. However, other backpackers were very lucky to call or to check at the DOC at the right time and they got a booking for the days.

As it rained a lot (46cm in 24 hours at Milford Sound), my cruise was cancelled and I reported it to after my Kepler track.

I started with Phil, a guy from Manchester that I met at the hostel. We decided to take the boat (20NZ$) to Brod Bay directly. This means 3.5 hours less walk in the day and as it's going quite steep from Brod Bay and as I have a tendinite at my knee, it was a very good idea. I should buy some sticks next time.

From Brod Bay, the track goes up through a dense rain forest. It lenght is 8.5km and the hut is at about 1000m high. It took us 3.5 hours so we got to the Luxmore hut quite quickly.

After arriving and getting some rest, there was a small nature tour with the ranger and I was impressed to see how slow vegetation is growing: there were only 2 or 3 small plants at the old hut site which has been completly cleared 20 years ago.

Then, I headed to the Luxmore caves, 10 minutes from the hut with a couple from Australia.

We entered the cave with head lights and went about 30 meters inside where it's starting to get small. Some other backpackers from Germany went 20 minutes within until the river get deeper.

We saw many stalagtites but no glowworms. It was amazing!