wandering about the earth: Milford Track, NZ

Milford track

Milford Track is one of the best known of the hut-to-hut treks in NZ. It starts with a boat ride across the lake from Te Anau and then you hike up a couple river valleys, over a high mountain pass, and back down another river valley to Milford Sound. At Milford sound you are picked up by another boat and brought to Milford. From here we took a bus back to Te Anau. The Hike takes 4 days and three nights and covers 54 Km. The scenery and rain forest vegetation is stunning, even in the rain, which we got a lot of! Staying in the huts was a treat after the long day of hiking, and saves weight as you do not have to bring tent and stove. The huts are set up youth hostel-style, with a common area for cooking and hanging out, and several bunk rooms for sleeping.

Day 1-Milford
Day one is a short easy day. Today was a warm, partly cloudy day. On reaching the hut, plenty of time remains to take a cold swim in a large pool of the river. As long as you are wet and without clothing, the sand flies leave you alone, but once clothed (I was wearing black) they swarm you. Sand flies are nasty little critters that bite and leave itchy red bumps behind. A bit of advice for any one going on the west coast of NZ-do not wear blue or black clothing. Light colors are good, particularly orange. By the end of the trek I had probably 40-50 bites.

View from the boat ride across the lake

Near the first hut

Day 2-Milford
It is a much longer day today, all uphill. As you hike up the river valleys, they get narrower, the river becomes wilder, and the peaks seem to go up almost vertically, all rock and green carpeted rainforest. These peaks would be quite technical to climb, and difficult to even get to from the swamps and thickness of the vegetation across the valley floor. It rains much of the day, and thousands of vertical waterfalls pore down the mountainsides. The trees and ground drip with moss, fungus, and vines. You can hear the constant sound of birds, and some come close to you for a better look. We (my mother, David, and I) share the huts at night with people from a dozen different countries and hearing all the different languages spoken makes me even more excited about the year Tim and I are about to spend abroad. I have become friends with some people from Tanzania who begin hiking early each morning and save me a bottom bunk in the ‘quiet’ hut this day and the next. By the end of the day my feet and legs are quite sore and I enjoy reading in a sunny spot in the hut while a wood stove dries all our clothing.

A foggy view

Paradise Duck

Day 3-Milford
Today is another long day, up over the mountain pass and back down into another river valley. The trail is beautifully maintained and includes 297 steps (according to a guide we walked by). The river on this side goes down the valley in a series of waterfalls and has carved the rock around it completely smooth and rounded. It also rained today, but was warm and we wore merino wool t-shirts without raincoats and just got wet. The clouds were low and we could see very little on the pass, except for an occasional, teasing, shadowy outline of a peak that seamed to go almost straight up. The ridge on top of the pass is narrow and looking straight down the side opposite of what we came up is the stuff of nightmares. It looks like it drops straight until it eventually disappears into the fog below. It is our last night and tomorrow we will hike out to Milford Sound.

A NZ Kiwi bird

Tonight's bunk

Day 4-Milford Track
Today is the longest day, 18 km, mostly downhill. Again, it rained most of the day and even though it has been a fun and beautiful hike, we are happy to reach Milford sound where, sore, wet, and tired, we are picked up by a boat for a beautiful ride across the sound to Milford.