The Milford Track!

Four days to cover 34 miles sounds easy but in practice the first day "walk" is only a mile as you have to travel by coach and then boat to get to the start point and then with some optional detours you walk further plus you are carrying packs with your clothes and whatever else you cannot bear to be without for four day's trekking! The most difficult day which ended up as 16 miles also had 700 meters ascent to the McKinnon Pass and 900 meters of descent down the other side.

Fantail

The walk, apart from the McKinnon, is mainly in verdant rain forest.

Mackay falls

There is also the weather to contend with! Fact is, the Kiwis are having a shocking summer and we had everything from sunshine to mist, rain and hail, often at the same time (really, lots of rainbows!). The quote from Richard Henry in 1896 "This is fine country for the waterproof explorer" has seemed apt frequently on this trip.

There are also the sandflies and other small bitey things which are an incentive to keep moving.

The accommodation in the lodges was basic but with plenty of hot water and effective drying rooms for wet weather gear and for the clothes you wash by hand and then mangle day by day as you progress.

There was also plentiful food, beer and wine. Given that first Carolyn, then Nic went down with colds we were happy to follow the adage "feed a cold".

The other trekkers were a sociable bunch and the young guides a pleasure to deal with.

By the final day, another 13 miler, mainly in mist and rain we were as glad as one can be to reach the notorious "Sand Fly Point" and a final boat ride to a hotel overlooking the glorious Milford Sound and a boat tour of the Sound the next morning ( albeit in the rain for a large part of it, perhaps not unexpected given that it gets 8 metres of it a year) prior to bus ride to our Te Anau, our next staging post.