Luxmore Hut to Forward Peak - Possible?

Hi Tom Yes you are right 3-4 hours to Luxmore hut and you could walk from Brod Bay to Irus Burn hut in one day it would be a long hard day and you would have to watch the weather,when you cross the Ridge as winds can gust over 100kms per hour and get sleet. I would stay at Luxmore hut its a great hut to stay at,i walked the track in 2007.All the huts are good to stay at,Moturau hut is realy good as it is on the shores of Lake Manapouri and is good for a swim after a long walk but very cold. Wanaka has some great walks,drive out along Mt Aspiring rd to Rasberry creek Car park there you can walk the Rob Roy Glacier Track 4-5 hours return or from the car park walk to Mt Aspiring Hut 2.5 hours.This hut is well worth staying at. From the hut you can walk to the Liverpool Track hut walk or the French Ridge hut track this hut is above the snow line and you can get snowed in any time of the year. Back in Wanaka A MUST walk is the Roys Peak track,head back out on the MtAspiring rd for 6 kms on the left is a parking area this is where it starts.The track is 5-6 hours return and goes up over 1500m.It is very steep but once at the top the best views in the world i hope this helps,also i have posted Kepler track pics here as well you will have to surch for them. Lindsay

Hi all, I've been on the Kepler a couple of times. Depending on how fit you are you can easily reach Luxmoore hut from down town Te Anau by early afternoon with an 8-9am start. 45 minutes-1 hour walk around the lake from the DoC centre to the Control Gates, then about 1 hour to Brod Bay, then about 3 hours to Mt Luxmoore hut. During summer there is a water taxi that runs from Te Anau to Brod Bay for those that dont feel like walking (but its a very pleasant walk). The Luxmoore hut is very nice, and its well worth going and checkong out the cave thats nearby (marked from the hut). With plenty of time to spare in the afternoon theres a couple of good walks to down around the hut. Head up the track as if going on to Iris Burn hut a short way (about 15 minutes from Luxmoore hut) and then leave the track and either head up the prominant hill to your left (South) that sticks out to the left of Mt Luxmoore (hill 1402 I think its marked on the topo map). Its an easy scramble up it for about an hour with awesome views, and only 60ish metres smaller then Mt Luxmoore itself, and theres a rock ridge that joins the two which you can then go up to reach the summit of Luxmoore. Or, you can leave the track to teh right and go around the top of a gully to a spur that runs down towards the lake. You can see the hut along way off across the gully, and its a real nice quiet spot to soak in the view of the Murchason Mountains across the lake and read a book (if the sun is out!). Carrying on towards Iris Burn it is very easy to reach Forward Peak. Theres a deffinet ridge to walk down to to the Peak, no worries at all. The Matukituki valley, as lgwaddel mentions, is fantastic. Mt Aspiring hut is a great place to bace yourself out of. French Ridge has mind blowing views though there is no fire place in the hut and it can get very very cold up there! I deffinetly recomend carrying on up the ridge past the hut to the base of the Quarterdeck glacier, the drop into Gloomy Gorge is incredible! Back at Aspiring hut, its about 4 hours very hard slog to get up to The Pylon on the Cascade Saddle route, then another hour round to the Saddle itself, but again mind blowing views. The full crossing to Dart hut takes about 10 hours, but well worth it on a sunny day. When I did the crossing I then went down the Rees valley (and out), staying at 25 Mile hut which was an experience unto itself (very delapedated hut, but alot of character and history!). I can also reccomend the Gillespie Circuit and Wilkins Valley up near Makarora. Crucible Lake, and the 3 Wilkins lakes (Dianna, Lucidous and Castalia I think they are called) are very pretty.