Milford Track!

So, I've finally done it! I booked this hike back at the beginning of July, and I've been wanting to do it for months even before then.

If I haven't already prattled on to some of you about this hike, it's supposed to be one of the greatest in the world. It's four days long and takes you from inland at Lake Te Anau up through the Clinton Valley, over Mackinnon Pass, and down Arthur Valley to finish in Milford Sound.

This is no piece of cake walk. It's 55 km (33.5 miles for Grandpa and my American friends,) in pretty much 3 days. This area is a rainforest, and when I say that I mean RAINforest. It averages 8-11 METERS of rain a year, with their records being 94cm in 5 days, and 33cm in 36 hours. That's 1cm per hour almost!

And rather than spending $1800 to do this walk guided and live in the lap of luxury, we actually had to carry all our food in with us, as well as things like cooking equipment and sleeping bags. That also meant we didn't get a shower for 4 days. Ewww.

I set off on Dec. 13th with Tyler in tow (I told him about this hike and he booked in for the same day as me back before either of us were even here) and after a bus and boat ride we were at the start of the track.

Day One
- 5km, 3.1 miles
- 1.5 hours
- Cloudy with sunny periods



The first day was pretty easy. We were only able to walk 5 km to the first hut because the people who started the track the day before would have been at the next hut. This walk is very controlled in the summer and they only let 40 (unguided) people on it each day.

The walk was a nice flat trail that hugged the Clinton River the whole way to the hut. About 10 minutes before the hut was a small boardwalk that went into the wetlands. The hut that night was called Clinton Hut, and slept 20 people to each bunkroom. Can you say HORRIBLE? Some guy on the other side of the hut horrendously snored the whole night, and with that and kiwi birds screaming outside all night I didn't get much sleep! But I was excited for the next day.




Day Two
- 16.5 km, 10.3 miles
- 6 hours
- Light showers turning to rain

So, the day started out drizzling, but turned to full out rain after about an hour. Needless to say we got soaked to the bone, despite wet weather gear. It sucked, but it was good too, because the rain brings the waterfalls to life. Day two consists of walking up a glacier formed valley with really steep sides, which means they were completely covered in waterfalls. Absolutely breathtaking. The fog rolled in and gave it such a moody atmosphere that it was almost creepy. Even though I was miserably wet and my boots were puddles it was hard to miss the beauty of the place. The immense amount of water cascading down the mountains was almost unbelievable. I would have taken more pictures but it was hard to try and keep my camera dry and the pictures don't really do it justice.

We were able to make a fire at the hut that night and hang up all our stuff to dry. We got there in the early afternoon so we had time to kill, and we met a bunch of young people from Germany and played cards with them. And the keas (alpine parrots) came out to play at the hut in the evening. Very playful birds! They've been known to rip the rubber lining out from around car doors and windows just for fun. We had to hang up all our sutff that was outside so they couldn't get at it and destroy it. That night at Mintaro hut we managed to snag beds in a 8 bed room, but Tyler snored all night. He's never snored before! Needless to say I spent another night without much sleep...






Day Three
- 18km, 11.5 miles
- 7.5 hours
- Overcast sky with afternoon sun

So, your prayers for nice weather for me made it with the time difference in time for the best day, the hike over the pass. Up 500 vertical meters, down 900. Hard on the knees but amazing views! It took about two hours to make the climb over the pass, and from the top we could see all the way down the Clinton Valley (the way we had come in the last few days, and also down the other side to the Arthur Valley (where we were heading.) In the picture I'm looking over a ledge that has a 12 second drop. I totally have my scared smile on.



Back down Clinton Valley, where we came from

Panorama of the Arthur Valley area from the top of the pass.

In the afternoon we were able to leave our packs at a shelter on the track and take a side trip to Sutherland Falls, the fifth highest in the world and highest in New Zealand at 580 meters. Pretty beautiful, but I got thoroughly soaked standing at the bottom because of the spray. The sun really came out in the afternoon and so the last hour hike to the hut was a hot one. So when I saw a sign for a swimming hole I was all for getting clean. Only we're not allowed to use soap or shampoo in the lakes or rivers so it was pretty much just trying to rub my head clean. It was absolutely freezing though since it's snow and glacier run off in the river. Anna from Germany came too, and it was so cold her nose started running! It was definitely refreshing though and I did feel much cleaner after!



Sutherland Falls

The hut warden that night told us a lot of cool stuff about the history of the track. It wasn't open to unguided walkers until 1964 when the Otago Tramping Club walked in and staged a protest on the top of Mackinnon Pass to let independent walkers on. The government had no choice but to give in and built the huts that we're using now and let unguided walkers on the track. Pretty cool. Also, do you know why the only flowers in alpine areas are white? It's because bees don't live that high up and can't pollinate the flowers, so that only things left are moths. And moths only come out at night, so all they can pollinate are the flowers they can see, hence the white ones surviving and the rest not. I thought that was pretty interesting!

In the hut I was in a 10 bed room but no one in it snored! Yay, so I actually got a pretty good sleep for the last day.

Day Four
- 18km, 11.5 miles
- 5.5 hours
- Pouring rain all day.

We think we get rain back home, but THIS was RAIN. It was thundering down so hard it was like drums hitting the ground, and the drops were the size of huge raisins, if not jellybeans.

It was pouring rain right from when we got up, and after only 45 minutes my boots were completely soaked through again. So I just gave up trying to be dry and had fun doing some puddle-jumping. Day four was pretty much following the Arthur River and Lake Ada down to the ocean at Milford Sound. Because it was raining so hard, once again the waterfalls were alive, but not as dramatic as day two because we weren't in such a contained valley this time. Mostly they were really large ones, but there were tons of streams that crossed the path that we had to walk through. The deepest one was almost up to my knees!

It was really amazing to be walking through the forest in the pouring rain. It gives a completely different perspective. The whole forest is alive with the tapping of rain on leaves and shrill bird calls. It smells so earthy and natural that it almost enhances your vision because it gives you more detail and a bigger overall vision of what you're seeing. The trees and ferns were similar and yet so different from the ones at home giving me a sense of familiarity and new adventure at the same time. Simply amazing.






Mitre peak, but it's hidden behind the clouds and you can't see it. I was really disappointed about that because Milford Sound is supposed to be absolutely beautiful when it's nice out.

We took a boat into Milford Sound, and we were done!

I feel so much more fit now! I feel like I could climb another mountain. Although I don't want to because I'm pretty sore!

Thanks for the recipe ideas guys, they really helped!