New Zealand Travelog
Week 2
13-March-2002
The Milford Track, Day 1.
Awoke to a crisp morning in Te Anau, and had a frantic time packing the last few items for the trip. The DOC has a long-term parking lot across the street from the holiday park, however, the only space was a real tight fit for our little campervan. We were the last ones on the 9:30 bus to Te Anau Downs, where we then caught a boat that took us to the beginning of the track. The boat ride was about 1 hour long, and it rained the whole ride across. The 3rd mode of transportation for the day, our feet, were needed for the last hour to hike about 3 miles into Clinton Hut.
Each night we stayed
at a hut maintained by the DOC, and staffed by a caretaker. The huts were
quite nice - comfy mattresses, gas stoves, running water and flush toilets.
Access to the track is quite controlled - 40 people are allowed to begin
hiking each day, and everyone must hike in the same direction. You are only
allowed to stay at each hut for one night, so that the traffic pattern doesn't
back up. 
We got to the
Clinton Hut around 1 p.m. The hut is named for its location on the Clinton
River - although there is a town named Clinton, and a town name Gore nearby.
The highway that connects them is called the "Presidential Highway".
Since we had so much time to kill at the hut, we wondered what to do with
ourselves. Lunch was the first order of business (less food to carry the
next day), then a nap. The rain let up in early evening, so we walked back
down the trail a bit to a "wetlands trail," that was a boardwalk
out over a peat bog, and took some pictures. 
The first full
day of walking on the Milford Track is a fairly easy day, which we would
come to appreciate later. Interestingly, most of the signs on the track
list time to the the next destination, and not distance. There are mileage
posts, if you know where you are, and where you're headed. We're not sure
how they arrive at these time estimates, but they are nothing similar
to what you might read in a guidebook in the United States. "Book
time" in the U.S. is generally 150% greater than our average, and
we thought the same would apply here - were we mistaken... 
The
estimated time for this day was six hours. We said "Oh easy - we
can do it in four." Wrong. Six hours later, we pulled into Mintaro
Hut, the second hut in the Independant walkers track. 
we put our
raingear away for the day. The track is well maintained, and grades gently
up into the valley. Steve thought it resembled a highway - since you could
almost drive our campervan halfway up the valley. We tried to eat lunch
around 1pm in an open sunny field. A quick lesson in where sandflies (in
the U.S. blackflies) like to hang out. We got our food out and quickly realized
that we'd picked the wrong place for lunch. We continued up the valley until
we found a darker, cooler lunch spot.The guidebook mentioned that there
was a half-hour of uphill hiking just before we would reach the hut. After
lunch, anytime we hiked uphill we thought we might be getting close. It
was to our surprise when, at around 1:30 pm, we saw the sign "Mintaro
Hut - 1.5 hours". We arrived at the hut around 3 pm, and were greeted
by our fellow hikers who'd already arrived. Several of them were just leaving
to hike to the top of McKinnon Pass, as the weather was still nice and rain
was predicted for the next day. After resting for about two hours, we decided
to join them. The 2.5 mile hike to the top took about 90 minutes - it was
nice to be without our packs, but we definitely felt the uphill in our legs!
The sun was starting to set by the time we reached the top, but the view
was spectacular. We made it back down before dark, and quickly consumed
our dinner so that we could stumble into bed. 
When we awoke
the next morning to grey skies and rain showers, which made us feel justified
for having hiked to the top of the pass the night before. We packed up
our bags and were on the trail by 9:15, as we had a big day ahead of us.
The first two hours were spent heading up to McKinnon Pass (takes longer
with the pack on!). By the time we got to the top, the wind was blowing
so hard it threatened to knock Sarah on her butt. We quickly bypassed
all the picture-taking spots and made a beeline to the McKinnon Pass hut.
The Pass hut is a warming hut tucked down among the alpine lakes on the
summit. We were just expecting a place to get out of the wind, but it
actually had a gas stove to make hot drinks and soup (tea and biscuits
for the British hikers among our group). It also had an outhouse with
a view that would rank up there among the best of them. We spent about
an hour in the hut, drinking hot chocolate and eating the best-tasting
ramen noodles ever. Once we were warm and had refueled, we headed back
out into the wind and rain. Most of the rest of the day was spent decending
down the other side of the Pass. Very steep and hard on the knees.
Our final day
of hiking had a deadline to it - we had to catch a boat from Sandfly Point
(at the end of the hike) to the village of Milford. There are two boats,
the first at 2:25 and another at 3:15 p.m. This meant that we could either
haul a** and make it to the early boat, or take a leisurely stroll and
end up on the later boat. We decided that because of the pouring rain
(again), that we would try for the early boat. From Dumpling Hut, the
track is mostly level, with numerous river crossings on swing bridges.
There was one very impressive piece of track cut into solid rock surrounding
Ada Lake by prison workers at the turn of the century. The heavy rains
of the prior two days had swollen most of the creeks and streams to raging
torrents, which explained to us why there were so many bridges across
what used to be dry (3 days ago) creek beds. Interestingly, two or three
really tough water crossings had no bridges, so it was up to careful balance
to try to circumnavigate them, or just splash right through before the
ponded water could soak through your boots. However, by this point, both
of our Limmers were soaked completely through. In ten years of hiking,
that had never happened before. We guessed it would probably never again
be that wet either. 
There were a
few notable features along the way. A tremendous amount of work has recently
gone into building boardwalks and stairs along the descent paralleling
a steep streambed. It kind of surprised us how long and intricate the
stairways were. Of course the waterfalls they were alongside were pretty
awesome too. The Bell Rock is neat - though we didn't have time to stand
up inside. Apparently, it is a hollowed out boulder the size of a minivan
inside. The sandflies at sandfly point were quite ferocious.
That evening,
we joined 60 other people for an overnight cruise on Milford Sound. The
Milford Wanderer is operated by Fiordland Travel, and is very nicely
appointed. We had a "family" cabin to ourselves. It had a double
bunk across the bottom, and twin bunk beds up above on each side. Perfect
for a small couple and their kids. The boat cruised up and down the sound
before anchoring for the night. 
We
immediately headed for the hot showers down below - 6 total on the boat.
We didn't want to waste any time reheating our chilled wet bodies. Soup
was served soon after departure, then a nice hot chicken dinner at anchor.
The food wasn't quite enough, after four days of hiking. But alas- they
hadn't brought enough for seconds. Oh well. That evening, they asked if
anyone wanted to sea kayak. We kind of laughed at each other and said
"yeah, right, in this weather?" But about a dozen crazy folks
(who hadn't been wet all week) donned raingear and life jackets and paddled
a couple of laps around the boat while at anchor. We decided there were
better things to do than paddle in circles around this moored barge. Anyway,
we headed below after dinner to stretch, and crawl into bed for a long
restful night of sleep. We actually slept one hour more than normal -
since Daylight Savings had just ended... Yahoo!
17-March-2002
We had a picnic
on the shores of Lake Wanaka for lunch. However, the wind coming off the
lake was so strong that we ended up eating in the van. Then it was off
for a small walk to Waterfall Creek, an easy hike along the lake shore.
Sarah's blisters (see right) were still bothering her, so we didn't want
to attempt anything too difficult. We misunderstood the map and thought
we were going to actually see a waterfall, but no. That was just the name
of the creek. One of the neat things about the walk was that it took us
by the vineyards of the local winery.