Well the Milford Track bookings finally opened today and what a debacle. Couldn't get past the booking page - overloaded so the servers said no. By the time I got in after a couple of hours the Milford was booked out from at least mid December to 20 January! At 40 beds per hut that's a LOT of people. I suspect booking bots must have been involved to ensure some people got their tickets but I'm not even sure that's possible. Anyway we booked our flights (on points) six months ago and now we're stuffed.
I looked at Kepler as a back-up. It's showing zero availability all summer but I think that's a fault as there's no way it's more popular than Milford. Routeburn has a bit of availability but that's further down my list as it's a shorter walk. We could do that as well as another walk so I'm not rushing to book that yet. Might have to though. I've emailed DoC to check what's going on with Kepler and if there's a chance of getting a berth for Milford. If I can't then I can't see any way of getting on it ever. Pure luck or go the luxury route. Disappointed is all I can say.