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"THE
FINEST WALK IN THE WORLD" |
THIS ARTICLE
FIRST APPEARED IN AUTUMN 2009; LAST REVISED: 2014.
EXCEPT WHERE NOTED, ALL PHOTOS © HOME AT FIRST. |
ARACHNOPHOBIA
IN AOTEAROA
"Yeeeeeeoooooooowwwww!" That was me in
New
Zealand (Aotearoa in native
Maori) last March doing my best Howard Dean primal scream while falling backward into
a ditch. A huge spider had almost killed me. |

Descending MacKinnon
Pass
on the Milford Track. |
Well, not
exactly. This was my third and last day on the Milford Track, New Zealands
gold standard long-distance hike that shows up on the must-do lists of walkers world-wide.
This last day wasnt the steepest day on the Track (that was yesterday when we went
up and over MacKinnon Pass with a total altitude change of nearly a mile), but at 13 miles
it was the longest. My two heal blisters notwithstanding, day 3 seemed a relatively easy
walk in the park.
PARROTS, PENGUINS, AND
PREHISTORIC
PODOCARPS —
Make that New
Zealands Fiordland National Park. In a country with more national parks than cities,
Fiordland is New Zealands largest national park, and, arguably, its biggest tourist
draw, best advertisement, and greatest treasure. Covering almost 3 million acres of
convoluted land on the southwestern corner of New Zealands
South
Island, Fiordland is mixture of glacier-carved deepwater fiords that fill remote
valleys between snowcapped |
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mountains. The terrain is made more
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remarkable by its remoteness (nearest
major
neighbors: southeastern Australia and Antarctica), the uniqueness of its plant and animal life (giant
prehistoric fern trees; parrots and penguins in the same habitat), and
its amazing rainfall (up to 29 feet per year!).
Fiordlands uniqueness stands out in a country full of
remarkable regions. So astounding is Fiordland that it has been designated a
United
Nations World Heritage Site. |
SOME FLYING THINGS, & SOME THAT DON'T FLY —
Wondrous Fiordland draws em like
flies. Make that like sand flies. Sand flies are the parks only predator of human
flesh and blood. There are no snakes, no lizards, no foxes, no wolves, no tigers, no
bears. The only big mammals here were imported for hunting: elk and red deer. No sheep or
cows or horses, either, inside of the park. There are stoats (think weasel) and Australian
possums (think a marsupial that looks like a squirrel/raccoon hybrid) that have found
Fiordland a paradise where food is plentiful and enemies few. The prey for these 3
introduced predators is, sadly, a threatened natural population of unique birds, including
New Zealands national symbol, the flightless, hairy-feathered, long-beaked kiwi.
And, oh yes, there’s the occasional spider.
After two days in the New Zealand wilderness I had been lulled into a
false security that the Milford Track penetrated a benign |

Thanks to one of the
world's
wettest climates,
tree
ferns and podocarps
line the lower portions
of the Milford Track. |
rainforest, full of the exotic cries of jungle birds. Tuis (TU-eez) |
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are the best known, if only because they
help sell a |

The kea,
world's only alpine parrot |
popular
North Island beer of the same name. Bush robins — haven't
they heard
about the stoats? — were so friendly they
would hop up to my boots
thinking my laces must be fat worms. As for kiwis — well, I’ve been to New
Zealand many times, and kiwis remain only a nocturnal rumor. It was easy
finding the world’s only alpine parrot, the kea — it finds you. They wait
near the lodges spaced along the Milford Track. When you arrive and hit
the showers, they go to work, looking for the boots, clothing or
knapsack left outside the cabins by unsuspecting or careless hikers. The
kea — with the |
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height and weight of a middling penguin —
hops |
furtively sideways to stalk and ransack anything made of leather or that
might
contain a possible kea snack. Duck, nylon, leather,
and, probably, Kevlar, are no match for the scimitar beak of
the hungry, mischievous kea. My sense is that a kea’s culinary
preferences are as unrefined as those of a billy goat. This trickster must be equipped with a cast-iron
stomach. Unlike penguins and goats, however, keas can fly a little.
Flying? We were flying along the
immaculately groomed, spongy trail, making |
fast tracks for the
33.5-mile post, the finish line of |
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the Milford Track at Sandfly Point. My companion was a 30-ish Aussie from Sydney,
fit but new to long-distance trekking. Nick had left his fiancé at home in Oz, knowing
that she wasnt the type to put up with three days slogging through one of the
wettest places on earth, while having to rough it for four nights in crude hikers
huts with communal toilets, cold showers, and inedible food. Now, two-and-half days and
three nights into it, Nick knew he had made a mistake. The weather had been perfectly dry,
and each day offered sunny skies with low, billowy, cumulus clouds that reminded
you the
ocean was not far away. |

"Claire might have
complained
about
the 4-hour climb to the
pass..."
Nick reaching tree line
on MacKinnon Pass. |
MACKINNON PASS —
Claire, Nick's fiancé,
wouldn’t have minded the flat sections that
characterized Days 1 and 3, a total of 23 of the 33.5 total miles of the
Milford. On both sides of the divide the track is a dream — mossy soft,
four to five feet wide, and ditched to the right and the left to handle
the drainage of heavy rains expected more than 200 days each year.
Claire would have found Day 2’s big climb across MacKinnon Pass
|
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challenging. This day the path is moderately steep, |

"...but she would
have been thrilled by
the views of snowcapped mountains
and the steep-sided mini-Yosemite
Valleys that reward you at the top."
Nick at MacKinnon Memorial Cairn. |
rocky, rooty, and, beyond the lower beech forest to the
3,300 altitude, a narrow (2-feet and less)
cutting through dense gorse, bracken, and scrub. Claire might have complained
about the 4-hour climb to the pass, but she would have been thrilled by
the views of snowcapped mountains and the steep-sided mini-Yosemite
Valleys that reward you at the top. The descent from MacKinnon Pass is
steeper and hard on tired legs — especially the knees. But once back in
the forest the trail becomes a boardwalk tracing a fabulous set of
cascading waterfalls that have scoured and polished the granite of these
mountains into smoothly rounded kettles and funnels reminiscent
of Henry Moore |
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sculptures. |
LODGES AND OTHER TOUCHES OF CIVILIZATION
— |
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Nick really knew he had got it wrong
when the finish of each days trek led to a comfortable, well-equipped lodge. Grab a
shower, wash and hang your sweaties, then limp down to happy hour in the lounge, and the
finest 3-course meals imaginable this far in the wilderness, featuring a choice of two
entrées daily, with soup, salad, and dessert. Beer, wine, and canned soft drinks are the
only extra-cost extras. The New Zealand beer was good, if a little warm due to limited
refrigeration. The disappointment was the wine. New Zealand produces some world class
wines of both colors. The stuff sold by the glass or by the bottle at the lodges was
uniformly bad. The Aussies, Yanks, Brits, and Europeans on the walk drank it, but only the
Kiwis seemed to drink it to excess. I was puzzled by the wines inferiority, but
happy not to be hung over on any marching day.
Hot showers? Yep — all the hot water
you want. Private toilets? Yes, spic ’n span lockable stalls, flush
porcelain |

Guides provide a
welcome
at Glade
House lodge for
the first night on
the Milford Track. |
fixtures, and, thankfully,
air fresheners and splinter-free TP. |
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Rooms? Bunkhouse style dormitories (no
mixed genders) with kids’ camp
mattresses, blankets and pillows. For
couples, higher rollers, and other privacy-challenged hikers, lodges
offer a limited number of private rooms with private bathrooms and
showers, but for a not-meaningless supplemental charge. |
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In all cases, hikers must carry a sleep sheet
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Lunch on the Milford
Track means
taking off the backpack for an
hour. The sack lunch always
tasted better with a scenic view. |
— a polyester cocoon that supposedly separates bodies from blankets,
pillows, and mattresses. Not if youre 61". Hikers also need to carry a
pack with a change of clothing or two, a wash cloth, hut shoes or sandals, small digital
camera, sun block, sun glasses, a hat, gloves, a heavy fleece, and, importantly, raingear.
Total pack weight: 25lbs. unless you are like me and carry a heavy camera rig and
collapsible tripod or monopod. We were advised to leave our toiletries (supplied at
lodges), cotton clothing (heavy and heat-sapping when wet), and make-up (lipstick in
the jungle? For whom, Tarzan?) |
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home. Most hikers complied with
suggestions one
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and two. Not one woman — there were 23 women in our group of 50 — took
suggestion three and left the make-up home. |
SUTHERLAND FALLS — |
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If Claire had come along, Nick would
have had much better company for 3 days and 4 nights in paradise than me. But he probably
would not have laughed as hard. He laughed at me when I twice swam in icy waters once
a waterfall-fed pond by the edge of a cliff, and once in a crystal clear creek still
swollen by the previous weeks record rains. We all laughed when a group of tiny
women prize winners of this trip from their company back in Japan donned
raincoats and paraded like ducklings into the roaring, frigid mists of the worlds
fifth highest waterfall, Sutherland Falls. They were the only ones to use their raingear
from our group. Ranging in age from 40-65, these little wan women seemed vastly out of
place in the adventure in Big Nature. Still, they accomplished each day in good time, if
always bringing up the rear with the last guide in tow arriving an hour or so after a fast
group of young Aussies from a car dealership was already on its fourth beer each in the
lodge lounge. |

The raincoats come in
handy
at the world's 5th highest
waterfall, Sutherland Falls. |
AN INTERNATIONAL RACE ON A DRY
TRACK —
I don’t know if
the laughter would have been less if the weather had been wet. The climb
across 3,500’ high Mackinnon Pass would have been much more difficult in
a driving, cold rain, or in snow — possible at any time of year. Certainly
my encounter with the spider would have been different in the heavy
rains the Milford Track expects |
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more than half the time. It was the middle of the third day |

Milford Track attracts
many couples, including
some who are not
regular
walkers.
Fitness helps, as it
did
this very fit Canadian/
French couple photo-
graphed at Mackay Falls. |
when Nick and I were making a final push to reach
the 2PM boat at Sandfly Point. We wanted to get to Mitre Peak Lodge at Milford Sound as early as
possible, before they ran out of ice cold beer. We had already streaked past the Japanese
ladies, and a group of 4 or so New Zealand couples who were taking their time. At the
lunch stop we passed the Brits (from London, Wales, and Yorkshire), some other Americans
(a couple of lawyers from DC, and a couple of doctors from MN), a terrific couple from
South Africa via Australia, a nifty senior (oldest in our group) from South Africa via
Switzerland, two French Canadian couples (one via New Caledonia), and several Aussies.
Only the Aussie car dealers were between us and being first to Sandfly Point. It was a
race for hot showers and cold beer.
Nick has 25 years
on me, and he was in the lead. But I had my trusty hiking poles out and
was digging in, letting my arms propel at least 25% of my weight. Head
down, I leaned into the poles, pressing their points into the mossy loam
of the Milford Track. We were certainly doing 5mph. On a |
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winding section, when I looked up to get
my bearings, there |
it was, dangling in front of me at eye level, big
as my fist, and hairy, and suspended by a single thread attached to some
overhead branch or frond. |
The poles dug in. My blistered heals dug in. |
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The brakes went on. But I was top-heavy with a pack full of
camera gear.
"Yeeeeeeoooooooowwwww!" That was my primal scream while falling backward into the ditch.
Nick turned,
pale as a ghost, and raced back to find me flat on my backpack, convulsing in the dry but
remarkably soft, lichen-filled ditch, convulsing with laughter. Nick thought the old man
had had a high-speed heart attack. He hadnt seen the spider. Im not sure he
believed by story about seeing the spider, something not expected, not even
rumored, something as rare as a kiwi or rain on the
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Nick hadn't seen the
spider.
I was certain I had. |
Milford Track. |
.THE MILFORD TRACK
"THE
FINEST WALK IN THE WORLD"
Photo
© Home At First |
IF YOU GO:
Theres a good way and
a better way to do the Milford Track.
You
can walk the Milford |
Track inexpensively and independently as "Freedom
Walkers" with your own bedding, without guides, without support,
with adequate but minimal lodging without catering,
using the public hikers’ lodges operated by New
Zealand’s Department of Conservation (DOC). Because
of the popularity of the Milford Track — over 14,000
hikers make the trek each year —you must reserve
lodging in advance year round (camping is not
permitted), from mid-October through April you may
walk only in one direction (northbound from Lake Te
Anau to Milford Sound), and you must do the walk in
the required 4 days and 3 nights (independent) or 5
days and 4 nights (guided). Lugging 3-4 days of food
and the cook pots to prepare it, plus a sleeping bag
is necessary for independent hikers, and cooking,
and washing up is part of each day’s independent
hike on the Milford Track. Public lodges for
independent hikers have |

The
finish of the Milford Track: Milford
Sound.
All hikers must exit via a water
crossing by
boat or kayak from
Sandfly Point to Milford. |
dormitory sleeping for
up to 40 persons
only no private rooms, and no drying
rooms for washed or soaked
clothing. The lodges have cold water only and no showers just cold water lavatories
and flush toilets. Lodges are staffed with DOC employees who are helpful and
knowledgeable, but very busy with the chores required by handling 40 new guests daily.
Expect the total tab for an independent walk on
the Milford Track to approximate NZ$500-NZ$900 per person, depending upon
whether you are starting and ending at
Te Anau or Queenstown and how much equipment you may
need to rent. |
A
better — if significantly |
more expensive: NZ$1930-NZ$3085/person — way for hikers
looking to trek the Milford Track with convenience, style, and support is via
the 5-day, 4-night guided walk offered by Ultimate Hikes of
Queenstown. Guided walkers pay one price for 5 days of activity
including bus and boat transportation from Queenstown to the Milford Track
trailhead and the boat and bus
from Milford Sound back to Queenstown. |

Boarding the boat AT TE ANAU DOWNS
for the 75-MINUTE
cruise on Lake Te
Anau to the
Milford Track trail head |
Three nights are spent in the |
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comparatively opulent
private lodges Ultimate Hikes operates along the
track. Each has hot and cold running water, showers,
some private rooms, washing facilities and drying
rooms, lounges with snacks and drinks, and catered
dining. A fourth night is spent at the Mitre Peak
Lodge hotel at Milford Sound. A fifth day begins
with a cruise of dramatic, steep-walled Milford
Sound, with the chance to see dolphins, seals and
other exotica, and stick your nose into the frigid
cataract of one last towering waterfall. |
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For guided hikers on the Milford Track, carrying |

Finally a reason for the
raincoats provided free
to
organized groups. The
last
morning's included
cruise
on Milford Sound
visits a
waterfall
at close range. |
food, beyond your favorite nuts, trail
mix, or energy bars, is not necessary for guided walkers, because snacks, dinner, and
breakfast are provided at all the lodges along the way. Guided walkers make and carry sack
lunches from a buffet of sandwich makings laid out at the lodges before each mornings
departure. Carrying more than 2 liters of water isnt necessary either. Fill your
water bottles with the water from any of the streams, waterfalls, ponds, and lakes along
the track.
One set of Ultimate Hikes personnel cares for
the lodges, while another set (roughly one for every 10-15 persons of a group) serves as
guides, traveling with each group. Typically, guides are young, fit, and enthusiastic
outdoorsmen and women. Because Milford Track guests primarily speak English or Japanese,
guides are New Zealanders and Japanese, but all guides cater to all walkers, and eagerly
answer questions about the
geology, history,
flora and fauna of the Milford Track as
well as concern themselves with the
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safety and comfort of their charges. |
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For full information,
or to reserve a Milford Track guided hike, contact
Ultimate
Hikes
or have
Home At First
make your booking as part of your
New Zealand trip. |
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Few natural spaces are as
uniquely varied as New Zealand.
Home At First offers lodgings
in regions across the length
of New Zealand.
Our exclusive "New Zealand Activities
Guide" has hundreds of suggestions for things to see
and
do when you travel with Home At First
to:
NEW ZEALAND. |
 |
ASK TO SPEAK WITH A HOME AT FIRST "NEW
ZEALAND SPECIALIST"
TRAVEL CONSULTANT CERTIFIED BY THE NEW ZEALAND TOURISM
BOARD.
—HOME AT FIRST—
AFFORDABLE DREAM
TRAVEL WITH ALL THE COMFORTS OF HOME. |
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