Three of my friends and I decided on a Tuesday to walk the Milford the coming weekend. This was one of the first weekends of the off-season, meaning the hut passes were cheaper, there were less people, the weather could be bad and there was no running water or gas in the huts. Perfect! We planned to skip the first hut and do a four day walk in three days.
La caminata más perfecta del mundo. Matt, Desiree, Laura and I dominated the Milford Track, Peruvian style. :) Matt and Desiree both have one or more Spanish speaking parental influences, they go to University of Indiana and are dating....oh and they are really cool. Before we started hiking we decided that we needed a team name of sorts. Desiree came up with the idea of Chasquis. Chasquis are the hard core Peruvian people who used to deliver mail by running up mountains. A South American Sherpa of sorts. So we were, are and always will be the Chasquis. We spoke in Spanish for fun....and to throw off the group of kiwis. No one knows Spanish in New Zealand.
We left on Thursday evening and drove almost to Te Anau...Matt was getting a bit tired and none of us girls (aka Chasquis Bonitas) could drive a standard. So we pulled over and camped on the side(ish) of the road. We had to wake up pretty early to hire (aka rent) a beacon (in case we die) and catch our bus. The one catch about the Milford Track is that the beginning and the end of the track are large bodies of water, so you have to pay the big bucks or bring a floaty. One of our many goals for this trip was to be airlifted out by a helicopter on the 3rd day....a few of our friends had been caught in a huge storm a few weekends before and had to get a free heli flight through the mountains. Sweet as!
Our bus left from the Te Anau DOC office and we rode to a dock on lake Te Anau to board out boat. On this adventure this weekend other than our group was a group of seven or so 30(ish) year old kiwis from Christchurch (or Wellington?). We also met more people along the way and at the huts. We rode the boat into Fiordland and into the cloud cover.
As we rode away from the small patch of blue sky a random old guy in a bad mood told us to take a good look, because that was all the blue sky we would see for three days....little did he know. :) We arrived at the dock at the beginning of the track and it was a good 2.5-3 meters underwater from the recent storm. 
So we took a dingy to the shore from the boat. The sandflies were out and we had a long way to go the first day, so we started off quick. 
This first day was following a river up a valley. It was gorgeous. For a while we were in the rainforest...the first bird we saw was a bright green parakeet, we also saw Tomtits and Fantails and hear Bell birds. 
We visited a “Large Red Beech Tree” on a 2 minute detour. It wasn’t raining, it was a good hiking temperature and everything was just picture perfect. After we had hiked for a while we broke out of the trees so we could see that we were walking right down a huge glacial valley with countless waterfalls streaming down the sides. Then we started seeing patches of blue sky! Of all the places, of all the times....Milford Track in the off season! This is one of the rainiest places on earth and we got blue sky! 
The food situation for this trip consisted of about 5 huge bars of chocolate and about 1.5 kilos of cheese.
We also had oats for breakfast, milo for all the time, cheese, crackers, salami and pb&j for lunches and couscous and pasta for dinners. We ate well, however I would forcefully discourage putting cheese in oatmeal.
Day two started off with oatmeal and Milo, the way I start most days. We packed up our gear and headed out. We left a little bit after all the other trampers so we had the trail to ourselves. Today wasn’t the longest day in mileage, but today was going to be the biggest change in elevation.
We hiked up to MacKinnon Pass and back down the other side. We climbed above the tree line and into the (sub)alpine of Fiordland. MacKinnon Pass is the highest point on the Milford at 1154m elevation. The view from the pass was massive. There were tarns (ancient glacial lake features) up on the flat part of the pass and a sheer cliff that looked off into the intricate valley system of Fiordland. It was chilly and windy on top, but we ate victory sour lollies and took in the view.
A little ways further along the trail there were a few construction workers working on a hut for when the weather is awful on the pass. What a job, eh? Just a few week backcountry, heli access only, construction gig in one of the most beautiful places in the world. I’d take that job any day. We stopped for a cheese, cracker and salami lunch a few minutes later and were visited by the cheeky Kea, the only alpine parrot. He didn’t like cheese. After lunch we started our descent back into the rain forest. Before long we ran into a situation.
We had to take an alternative route, because the normal track goes through the avalanche area...we had blue sky again. The emercency route was less posh, which the Chasquis liked. We had expected to be fording large rivers and battling the forces of weather...which was not in the cards this weekend...so we savored a little challenge. Along the way we saw many waterfalls. One in particular was just a series of short falls along a bright blue river. 
The pictures could never do this scene justice....there were intricate channels, slots and holes eroded into the light colored diorite and the blue water cascaded over them and down them with grace. This wasn’t even one of the big “sights”, but I think this was one of my favorite places on the Milford Track.
One general thing about the Milford Track is that it had a plethora of mushroom and moss species. Extraordinary types and amounts! I will show you just a sample:
Continuing on the second day we made it to a random lodge on the track for guided walks. This is a very fancy lodge for the back country. It was all closed for the off season, but we peaked through the windows and spotted two pianos, flushing toilets and a sign that said to “please wear your name tag”. A little out of place. This would be a spectacular place for a wedding! Right next to this lodge was the trail to Southerland Falls. We left out packs and headed out to see New Zealand’s largest waterfall that drops 580m in three tiers.
As you can see it was spectacular and so powerful. We got soaked from the spray. I just couldn’t believe how many incredible sights were packed into one walk. When we walked back to gt our packs and keep going we saw a Weka. A Weka is one of New Zealands large flightless birds. 
It was so awkward looking, but really cool. We continued on to Dumpling Hut. We walked 14 km/8.7 m today and we arrived a little bit after dark. My feet had just about had enough, so I was very ready to make it to Dumpling. My feet were a weird combo of sweat all day, rubbing, and dry and cracking at night with a few baby blisters thrown in the mix. Dumpling Hut is actually a cluster of buildings. Our group had a bunk room all to ourselves and we made an epic pot of pasta, star gazed for a little bit and went to bed.
During this whole trip we had been quoting the new NZ movie Boy and a HILARIOUS short film with the same actor called “Frosty man and the bmx boy”...watch it!! Laura is phenomenal at the accent! And the rest of us just tried. Like on most trips there was one phrase that we over used. The kiwi phrase “good on ya”....which is usually used in a very sincere way to mean good job. The pronunciation is like oña....which is how the Chasquis would say spell it any way or of course “bueno en ti”. Haha...fun memories.
The third and last day we were on the Milford Track started off a little misty but it also cleared up to be a beautiful day. At one point we stopped at a river and laura decided to “do some bombs bro” (aka cannon balls/ jump in). She’s crazy. But right before she jumped in we saw a massive eel. As you know Laura has been bit by an eel in NZ already. This eel was a good 10cm in diameter and a meter long (being conservative). We all freaked out and started throwing stuff at it to make it go away. It was huge and it wouldn’t leave. Laura timed it just right so that she jumped in when the eel was farthest away, then she got out of there SO fast. Haha it was quite the memory making experience. Many bridges, mosses, ‘shrooms and waterfalls later we started nearing the end of this stunning tramp. For lunch we stopped and literally jumped onto a small sandbar to eat our pb&js. The river was glacial blue and we could see trout swimming over the rocks. Another stunning waterfall.
The sandfly population increased with decreasing distance to our destination, Sandfly Point. My feet were killing me, every step was painful. After 18 km/11 mi we arrive at Sandfly point.
I had just walked 54 km/33.5 mi of stunning, breath-taking, beautiful NZ landscape...the best in the world, with great weather. This is what greeted me at the end...Milford Sound.
Wow. I am honored to have had this experience and I'm in awe of the artist.
The adventure ended with a short boat ride to a bus, a short bus ride to get some orange juice and a photo of the sound.
. Then a bus ride back to our car in Te Anau. We were hungry and set up the camp stove and everything on a picnic table in town and made couscous with everything we had left and a few purchased fresh veggies. Delightful. Drove back to Dunedin admiring the stars on the way.
As we finished this adventure I contemplated what other hikes would be like in my future now that I had experienced the most beautiful walk in the world....
...I guess I’ll just have to find out. I’m looking forward to it.
