The Kepler Challenge - part 2

We decided to run the Kepler great walk.
It is 60 km with big (c.4,500ft) hills, making it our biggest NZ running challenge yet. Looking at the profile and great walk information we thought this could be an 11hr trip....I, for one was a little nervous.

In order to break up the long flattish end section we started from rainbow reach car park at 07.30 (a mere 15 minutes behind schedule - which was a record).
The first few hours were a gentle undulating run through the dark forest as the mists cleared from the nearby lake:

Then followed a steep ascent until we popped out above the tree line and found the Luxmore hut (night one stop if you're walking) and our sticky bun stop, marking hour three of our schedule. (Sidebar: we've discovered Chelsea buns, late in life for such a discovery, but they are the food of champions). There were fantastic views:

The next few hours were undulating along the ridge line and this was the highlight of the track (we both love ridge running!):

The tops were tussocky and rocky, but on the other side were lush green valleys:

Here we encountered the line of folk who had started the morning at Luxmore hut.

A quick chat with a DoC ranger before the steep descent to the iris burn hut (night 2 stop if you're walking) at about hour 6.
We felt fine through that point, except for an attack by sandflys at the nearby campsite where we'd stopped to fill up water.
Somehow getting onto more flat terrain caused our legs to seize. What followed was a long and painful, gently undulating run down the valley. You can tell how painful by the look on Alistairs face when Sam asked him to stop and pose for a photo!

The scenery was still lovely and in stark contrast to the open ridge:

If the crippling knee pain was not enough, Sam thought she'd add some more sore bits by tripping on a root and hurling herself down the track (no photos of that unfortunately, figured it would list in the 'bad husband' category). Once we'd brushed off as much mud as would come off and descerned surface wounds only, we continued the painful slog to the finish at 9.5hrs, a good bit ahead of schedule (sidebar: you probably think we are a little/lot insane for subjecting ourselves to this - but there are madder people who can somehow complete this in just 4 1/2 hours!).
Through happy coincidence the campsite for the night was the only one so far where hot water was free and not restricted to 5 minites, so after a long hot soak, dinner was:

Followed by a long nights sleep.
It's a scientifically proven fact that the best way to follow a day in the hills is brunch:

Mmmmmmm....