Planning a trip to NZ in late february/march 2017

does gizmodo realise there is over 1600m of vertical altitude gain to cover in two days on the kepler track covering at least 45km? and decent as well? you need to carry all your own food and cooking utensils, sleeping bag as well as spare warm clothes if you get wet? over ten kilometres is over 1000m up and totally exposed to bad weather with only a couple of small shelters along the way that are just small emergency boxes to sit in with no services.

All of @waynowski's points are valid and it is worth pointing out all potential hazards. However, if @Gizmo can check off each of the points as being covered be it fitness, gear, weather forecast, knowledge of the track, etc there is no reason the Kepler is not achievable. Experience, especially in NZ conditions, may be an issue but joining with a more experienced person or group can help rectify this. A blanket "you are foreign you can't do it approach" is incorrect and unfair IMHO.

i have never said "you are foreign, you can't do this" i looked at his background and advised against the kepler for gizmo specifically. theres no shortage of other options around nz, you dont have to focus on it, its a borderline option to be looking at if you dont have a tramping background... never say never isnt necessarily the best approach either.... its not juset about one person its a public internet forum, who knows how many other people may follow the same advise wrongly because they will be going out of their depth? the advise issued here needs to be cautious. you cant act like you're talking to your mates who you know, you cant say "she'll be right mate" or we will end up with more news articles about tourists coming to grief trying to take on tramps that are beyond them, havent we had more than enough of that in the news recently? you cant just decide one day as a mature adult to go and walk some random track you decide on in an instant when you dont have a background of regular decent exercise, carrying all your gear on your back and some nous on preparing for the outdoors and expect everything will go swimmingly for everyone who takes that approach. do i have to remind you of the sad news of an experienced member of this forum who passed away tramping recently? you may think nothing of whats involved in getting into tramping but even experienced people can come undone in the outdoors

Your very first post in the thread is: "no, the Kepler track is out of your depth, the weather is terrible and its tough going..." We haven't really established anything significant about @Gizmo's background. He says he isn't an experienced tramper but he has done 80km in 5 days which even on easy ground does show passable endurance. He's walked in the Swiss Alps which from my (admittedly) limited experience there the tracks can involve a reasonable amount of climbing and weather can change reasonably quickly. I'm not saying this qualifies him as ready to charge off in to the NZ bush at random but he's also not asking to do that. Also I'm not saying "she'll be right mate" at all. I'm saying read @Waynowski's points, they are valid, ensure you are confident in understanding and assessing them and consider if the track is right for you. That's the very first sentence of my previous post.

I don't even know what to say about what you have just edited in as your last paragraph. To me that is insensitive and inappropriate.

I spent 2 months tramping (hiking) in the Swiss Alps. They are remarkably similar tracks to the alpine Great Walks. The afternoon convection thunderstorms turn a blue sky day into something miserable in the space of an hour. The height gain you can make, if you don't take the gondola or funicular, leave the 1250m of the Kepler in their dust. The main difference is here civilization isn't right there in your face around nearly every corner. Maybe that's what Gizmo wants to see?

maybe, but i wouldnt recommend anything like that until i know his background, i know swiss people who struggle to walk up a flight of stairs... they arent all mountain goats

I don't think anyone is saying "she'll be right." I'm certainly not anyway. I'm saying that if Gizmo is reasonably fit, if Gizmo is well prepared (this means PLB, warm and waterproof clothing, some sort of shelter, good hiking shoes) and if he wants to then there is no reason he shouldn't walk the Kepler. We should want to encourage people who are well prepared to experience what this country has to offer. The Kepler is a great way to experience New Zealand.

Hear hear. I was rather hoping our recent 'community values' would include something on how we foster participation in tramping, inform & encourage, nurture growth of experience and confidence in others. Well: that's what I joined up for, anyway. Sorry @Gizmo .. would love to finish off by offering first hand advice about the fitness level you'd need, rather than perpetuating this squabble, but I've never been on the Keplar.

Ok, guys, think I should tell you a bit more, about me ;) My dad was a fan of being in the mountains, so we spent some holidays in the alps, where we did some hikes. To be honest, back then I really hated it, it was exhausting and boring, and I was so grumpy, that I didn`t even see the beautiful nature around me. In 2008 I moved to Switzerland, because I fell in love with a swiss woman. She showed me around the country, which included doing hikes. And suddenly I liked it, I enjoyed it! What I didn`t do is climbing, bouldering, abseiling, and I`m not a real mountaineer, just a guy, who did some easier walks in the alps. The walk I liked most was in Val Verzasca, mostly along the river of Verzasca, but the path also leads away from the river, through ancient, but lost, villages. We did the hike from Sonongno to Lavertezzo. Took us 5 hours to complete the hike, including a 30min rest at the river, with a dip in the icy cold water. In 2010 I moved back home, and did some Interrail trips which didn`t include hiking. It was last year, when I came up with the idea of doing the coastal track of the Camino de Santiago. So I had to get started with easier tracks. Fehmarn was the first, and I wanted to do the Via Jutlandica in August, which would have been 198km in 12 days, all through Schleswig-Holstein. Unfortunately, I suffered an urethral blockage and needed to go to hospital. I do sports regularily, running, road- and mountainbiking, swimming and standup paddling. It took some time to find the right hiking shoes, but before I did the Fehmarn trip, I bought some La Sportiva Core High GTX shoes ( http://www.sportiva.com/products/footwear/hikingbackpacking/core-high-gtx), and I`m really happy with them! I have all kinds of lightweight outdoor gear, including fleecejacket and a lightweight rain jacket. What I don`t have are rain pants and hiking poles. For the rest, I have a lightweight high quality tent ( MSR Carbon Reflex 1), a good and fairly used backpack ( Deuter Air Contact Pro 60+15), a lightweight matress ( Therma-Rest Neoair X-Lite), and I could choose between two sleeping-bags, one downfilled, one microfibre. ( TNF Blue Kazoo and TNF Cat`s meow) Do you think, I need the poles? And which sleeping bag would you recommend? For the Kepler: I will start way up north, doing the Te Paki Coastal Track, doing the Cathedral Cove Walk at Coromandel, and the Abel Tasman Coastal Track. So I would have some experience, by then. But, I will decide, once I`m in Queenstown, I will ask what the weather is going to be like, and I will take advice from the officials and pros. If I don`t feel fit enough, I won`t do it. Maybe I`ll meet some others, who want to do it, as well, so we could go together, if this is safer. I would like to do it, but it`s not a must. Yeah, I said in my first post, I was planning to do the touristy things, but then I started to think about, why I want to go to NZ, and the answer is, because of the great nature. To really experience nature, you must become part of it, and the best way, to do this, is to hike and camp. And, I was never a friend of being around much people, I`m not a friend of others telling you what to see, when to see it, and being stuck in a coach with folks you don`t know, and maybe don`t like, but you have to spend your whole holidays with them..