A massive 40-bunk Great Walk hut on the Kepler Track.
Located: Next to Lake Manapouri, closest carpark is at Rainbow Reach, on the road between Te Anau and Manapouri. CD07; Grid/NZTM2000 coordinates: E1178760, N4949343
Access: A wide, well-maintained track of about 6km from Rainbow Reach to Moturau Hut. Our 2 1/2 year old managed to walk/bike nearly the whole way and it took around 3 3/4 hours. Adult walking time is about 1.5 hours. The track has a few things to break up the trip for kids – big swing bridges, viewing platforms into/across swamp, pest traps to check.
Hut features: Well-maintained hut, fully serviced in high season. Plenty of space to spread out and keep out of others way during off-season. Screens on windows. Woodburner. Plus there’s also Shallow Bay Hut around the corner (about 2km away) that you/others could bail to if things are going well. Beautiful lake and beach.
Negatives: Cost in high season (Labour Weekend – Easter; $54 per adult, children free). Possibly pretty cold in winter as large hut. Sandflies (not so bad round the corner at Shallow Bay).
Visited by the Clark family, Sept 2015.
Can vouch for cold in (near) winter (late May) even tho the day got to about 13deg & very sunny – all wood in sight soaked so despite all best efforts we couldn’t get fire going. Slept between my 2 kids, all of us in thermals & beanies & I had a hot water bottle. Just something to note. Still a great trip as we had whole hut to ourselves 🙂
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