Hidden Scenery

Milford Track, Great Walk. Lake Te Anau to Milford Sound
Party: Mark, Me
19 – 22 December 2017


Getting to the Milford Track is a feat of organisational skill, even doing so as a domestic visitor. We had to know what dates we wanted so that when bookings opened, we were only trying for specific dates – and then we had to get through the overloaded bookings system, which we barely managed. Add in sorting getting physically TO and from the track, and well, it took a bit of planning!

After leaving Spike in Christchurch with his grandparents and cousins, we jumped on our quick flight to Queenstown, where it was gloriously sunny. Our bus to Te Anau (TrackNet) picked us up at the commuter bus stop immediately outside arrivals about 2 minutes later than scheduled, and dropped us to our accommodation in Te Anau.

The next morning, after checking out and leaving a bag at reception for our return, we hefted our packs and wandered along the lakefront to the DoC visitor centre to pick up our passes for the track. With a couple of hours free time, we then left our packs behind and walked back into town for a last café break before grabbing our bus.

The wind at Te Anau downs was fierce and freezing, so everyone bundled up into their jackets while waiting for the launch to arrive for our pickup. The sun came back out as we cruised up the lake, enjoying the views of the mountains and the Southern Rata, but jackets stayed on as it didn’t really warm up as we hit the start of the track.

The wander in to Clinton hut was largely smooth sailing. We stopped outside Glade Lodge to remove our jackets, and were the last independent walkers from our boat across the famous swing bridge over the Clinton river. It wasn’t long before we started spotting the robins that became synonymous with our trip. The bush was lush and thick, and we got snippets of view as we walked. Arriving at the hut, we found it only 2/3 full, both of us nabbing bottom bunks in one of the two bunkrooms. We settled in to chill out for the afternoon, reading or doing the jigsaw puzzle laid out in the dining room. It was a bit of a late night, given it didn’t get dark till after lights out and we hadn’t walked far – everyone had loads of energy.

The Praire

Day 2 dawned fine and clear. We ambled off about mid group, stopping regularly (at first) to admire the robins we were seeing along the track. It seemed not long before we reached the lunch shelter used by the guided walkers, where we later discovered we should have topped up our water. It was already getting pretty warm, so we enjoyed a break in the shade before heading off, planning to lunch ourselves at Prairie Shelter.

Prairie Shelter was a roof with no sides. It reflected the heat back in, did nothing to deter the sandflies, and would have been a miserable place to stop in bad weather. While it had a toilet, it had no water supply. It also had a local population of weka, which made the break here a bit more entertaining.

Along the way, at one of the side tracks, we had picked up a wallet accidentally dropped out of a pack. We made an effort to stop at the guided walkers lodge at Pomplona to ensure it wasn’t one of theirs from a previous day (we were confident the current days walkers were all somewhere behind us), before discovering just shy of Mintaro hut that the wallet belonged to a member of a party on our own walking day – good thing too, since it had drivers licences and car keys in it!

A half moments personal reflection was had as we crossed the creek bed immediately past the Guided Walkers Pomplona Lodge – likely the place where the young couple got into trouble a couple of winters ago – to contemplate the crossing of that water course in high flows without a bridge. Crossing it when there was no flow was challenging enough.

Eventually, after being slightly broken by the heat of the day and having run out of water, we made it to Mintaro Hut, where we grabbed a couple of mattresses effectively on the floor and chilled out awaiting a time suitable for cooking dinner, opting not to join several other parties in a mission to the top of the hill to see the views before the weather closed in.

The forecast rain arrived at about 4am, and was soon a steady drizzle. Such an incredible change from the heat of the day before. Suddenly there were thousands of waterfalls visible from the deck of the hut, and we were going up into the clouds and through to the other side in it.

The climb up to Mackinnon Pass was actually almost my favourite part of the trip, despite the weather. The track was well graded, the zig zags enabled good altitude gains while not being too steep, and despite the clouds we got glimpses of amazing views. Cresting out at the top we found the memorial and some tarns, with a bitingly cold wind that had us briefly confer about whether we should stop and put on additional clothing (we opted not to). Mt Balloon and the 12 second drop both kept teasingly peeking out of the cloud before vanishing again, and we spotted a very cold looking weka just as we arrived at the shelter.

Walking into the shelter was like walking into a steam room. Everyone was wet through and sweaty, plus people were (sensibly) taking advantage of the provided gas and water to have hot drinks before heading off again. The toilet with a view had no view to speak of, and one of the girls in another party was struggling with hypothermia (which her party had well under control, utilising group members spare gear and refilling a water bladder with warm water).

Down the hill was a long, slow, cumbersome slog. The track was clear, but not well-formed. There were a lot of unbalanced rocks and huge steps. It had some positives though – Roaring Burn Creek was amazing in the rain, and Andersons Cascade is a massively under-advertised part of the day, especially if it’s been raining.

We finally stopped for lunch at Andersons Cascade shelter, most of the way down the hill. We were eaten alive by sandflies while there, so didn’t stay for long, opting to push on towards Quintin Lodge, where there was another shelter (with a flush toilet and a water boiler). We had decided on our way down that we wouldn’t go out the side track to Sutherland Falls as we were both so tired, but after 20 minutes rest at Quintin, were persuaded by others that we should. We made it to the second swing bridge before deciding we were rather done-in and needed to be aiming for our own hut again.

Not our pack, thank goodness!

Dumpling Hut was a sight for sore feet when we finally got there, although we were far from the last in for the evening. The bunkrooms stank from people hanging their sweaty damp clothes on the bunk ends (to avoid kea predation), despite there being drying racks in the living room. Most people retired early for the night, disbelieving the wardens suggestion on walking times, after all taking significantly longer to get down from the pass than suggested by the previous warden.

Mark and I were the last ones out the next morning, departing as the first guided walkers appeared on the deck in search of toilets. I had massive tendonitis lumps on my Achilles, and so was unable to walk in my boots, instead needing to strap my feet and borrow Mark’s Teva sandals.

Giants Gate Falls

The walk out was odd – I was actively trying to keep my feet dry for starters, and had to be concerned about rocks because kicking one accidentally would have been painful. We ran into Akiko again (a guide for the private walkers, who we had jump-frogged with the day before) a couple of times and she was full of good advice for dealing with the walk out in sandals.

The various waterfalls on the last day of the Milford are lovely, and the track was largely under cover of trees, so not too hot. We made reasonable time, but the last mile seemed interminable. Arriving at Sandfly Point shelter about 5 minutes before the recommended 15-minutes-before-departure of our boat was a relief.

The boat trip back over was incredibly bumpy, as the rivers were up and the tide was moving in, along with the afternoon sea breeze. When we loaded, we had all considered that perhaps opening the blinds would be good to let the breeze in. By the time we were half way back, we were super glad we hadn’t as the spray was huge.

Grabbing a seat in the air conditioned wharf building while we waited for our bus home, Mark whipped up to the café to get ice creams, which were absolute bliss. Thankfully there were only about 6 of us on the bus, so we could put our feet up in preparation for limping off at our accommodation in Te Anau.