My third visit to Lake Victoria, one of my favourites stomping grounds in the Kepler Mountains. On this occasion, we approached it from Lake Manapouri via the Refrigerator Valley.
Day 1: From Rainbow Reach via the Kepler Track to Shallow Bay Hut.
Day 2: From Shalllow Bay we pack-rafted along the northern shore of Lake Manapouri, across Calm Bay and the Hurricane Passage, to the mouth of the Refrigerator Valley. We climbed the steep spur on the true right of the river to approx 320m of elevation.
Day 3: Up the Refrigerator Valley to a small clearing near the head of the valley. Tough going getting into the hanging valley - hats off to the OUTC party that carried a refrigerator up this way ten years ago. And no, we did not find it!
Day 4: Up to a small lake at the very head of the Refrigerator Valley. From here, we scrambled to the top of Pt 1720m, highest point in the Kepler Mountains. We then crossed a piece of rather complicated country to Lake Victoria, before hopping over a pass and descending into the unnamed valley west of Spire Peak.
Day 5: Down into the Iris Burn River. We crossed to the Kepler Track just below the waterfall, then trudged down valley, past Iris Burn Hut and Moturau Hut to Shallow Bay. Thanks Theo (hut warden at Iris Burn Hut) for your generosity topping up our food supplies, we had run out of carbs!
Day 6: Back to Rainbow Reach and home.
Party: Lydia McLean and Danilo Hegg.