Mom and Dad had met me back in Dunedin and before we knew  it was time to head out to Te Anau, our departure point for the 4 day Milford Track – also known as the “finest walk in the world”. The track departs from the carpark in Te Anau Downs, and trampers are ferried to the start of the trail. After 4 days, trampers are then taken by a short boat ride into the iconic Milford Sound.

As a disclaimer I should add that Fiordland is one of the rainest places in the world, receiving about 13.4m of rain per year. We got a real Milford experience – here’s the play by play!

Day One:

The day started with a ranger pulling up to the ferry departure carpark and telling us that the 9AM boat transfer had been cancelled and that there was a possibility we wouldn’t be able to go since the weather was not favourable. See, along the track there are three huts that you stay at for your tramp. The people in the first hut, Clinton Hut, were not able to make it to the second due to some intense flooding along the track – about waist deep water with who knows what going on under the surface. In Fiordland, as soon as the rain starts, the rivers flood, and then recede just as quickly after the rain stops. We were told to hang out and wait until 1PM to see if the boat arrived back – if we would be tramping or not. Hoping for the weather to clear up (though I suspect Mom was praying for a different outcome), it started to rain harder, and harder and we were almost convinced that we would be turning around. Well, someone had decided that the increased downpour was no reason not to tramp so we got on the boat, ready to depart – for they had helicoptered/guided the guys in the hut across the flooded sections onto the next hut.

The skipper could hardly see out the front windows. He swerved the boat and then called back to us, telling us that he was avoiding something in the water. It was a tree – an entire tree! Long story short, we got to land (not dry) and it continued to rain harder than it had before. We continued on, careful to walk around the flooded sections of track in order to save the dryness of our boots. Well, that did little help. A few kms down the track we looked at the path, and it had disappeared and was replaced with essentially a river. In you go!

I looked down and there was even an eel swimming next to my feet. Let me rephrase, an EEL swimming on the TRAIL – not kidding about the flooding. Needless to say the 40 of us that were staying at the hut that night were completely soaked. I didn’t take very many photos as I didn’t want to ruin my camera, but the place was just like a laundromat with clothes hanging everywhere – with no hope of getting dry as it continued to pour throughout the night.

The huts are pretty basic – with gas cookers and a fire in the community building, then a bunkroom with thin mattresses. Luckily we were prepared with plastic bags around everything, so little got wet besides the outside of our soaked packs. We got out the dinner stuff – I carried most of the weight for the three of us since I was more used to it. Cooked some grub – backpacker meals (I wouldn’t say they are the best as I prefer to pack more natural, though they are easy and Mom and Dad like them). We finished eating and just sat, waiting for the ranger to come in and brief us on the weather conditions for tomorrow. It was still raining. Hard.

The ranger came in and gave us the news that tomorrow was looking even worse than today, and that we may have to spend a whole extra night at the hut. Mom was already a bit nervous about the trip, and now we had another element to deal to. I think she was having some doubts after hearing that, as were we all.

The night got later with not too much to do besides talk with people (I forgot my deck of cards I usually bring tramping). Mom and Dad went out to go organise their packs while I stayed and enjoyed the fire. I started talking with a young French guy and later a Swiss couple about my age – Pascal and Sarah. You will soon learn that we have become good friends. Next trip I will be making has a strong possibility of being Switzerland since I now have 4 friends living within a few minutes of Geneva. Back to the Milford, it was off to bed awaiting tomorrow.

Day Two:

I had a funny feeling that we should get up and eat breakfast quite quickly this morning. Turns out that the intuition was right. Just after we had finished, the ranger walked in and announced that we could leave on the trail but we had to get going within the next half hour in order to make it past the flooded sections (since they were already knee height and were constantly rising).

We jumped to it and did a fast paced trot down the trail. The track was already pretty flooded – our boots were still soaked from yesterday so it didn’t matter much us doing stream crossings.

It continued to rain even harder as we walked for a good 5 hours. Honestly though, this is the way to experience Fiordland in all its glory. The waterfalls were simply amazing – hundreds, thousands of them.

I didn’t know it could rain harder, yet it did. We saw a ranger along the track who called us over to the side to wait for everyone to catch up so that we could investigate the major river crossing together as a group. So, we were left standing in the middle of a field under a metal roof, soaking wet in the middle of a thunderstorm. Yes, this goes on the experience list. We got some food in our bodies and threw on some warm layers and waited for the rest of the trampers to catch up.

Once everyone was there, we then proceeded to make our way to the river to see how flooded it was…..and it was. It was not a safe situation so the decision was made to head back to the shelter to wait to be rescued by a helicopter which would take us to the next hut (which was probably only about an hour walking away). Long story short, we got a free helicopter ride! It was pretty cool.

Back at the hut we learned that two people had disregarded the ranger and had gone ahead. The good part is that they made it there safely and started a fire so that we had some resemblance of warmth when we arrived. Needless to say, we (and everyone else) slept very heavy that night.

Day Three:

Lara, the ranger came out to greet us at breakfast and congratulated us on our mission the past two days. As the clouds were breaking apart we set out to walk uphill to the summit of the mountain pass. Before Mom went on the trip she said that she would be happy if she just saw a rainbow. I told her the likelihood is low, but once again I was wrong. As we turned the corner about halfway up, we saw the most beautiful rainbow(s) reflected from the spray of the waterfall, still full from the rain that morning.

We made it to the top of the pass and boy was it windy! We took some photos with our Swiss friends and headed inside the emergency shelter for some tea. Note that the view is beautiful from here, for there is a reason that the toilet is named as the one with the best view on the world!

The clouds were rolling in and I could see some more rain coming our way so I urged Mom and Dad onwards.

The short version of the day was that it was an awfully long walk down, and down, and down – over wet rocks, passing waterfalls (which we were so over by now). Mom did not enjoy this, but we made it through and arrived at the third hut. Let me just say that the sandflies were everywhere and those bites HURT!

Day Four:

This was the LONG walk out. To be honest, even I was getting anxious at the end. It gave us some good time to get to know Sarah and Pascal though.

We finally made it to the boat terminal and were ferried to Milford Sound, where two kiwis helped us to our accommodation for the night at the Milford Lodge. I told Mom and Dad that I had bought them a $100 shower for a celebratory completion, and they were incredibly greatful. The feeling of clean and warmth was amazing!

Mom and Dad decided that we had earned having a dinner at the small in house restaurant, where there was some local salmon being served from Stuart Island. To be honest, any food other than backpacker meals would have tasted like a five star meal.

It was early to bed that night to get ready for an early morning boat ride on the Milford Sound. Milford Sound has got to be one of the most iconic locations in New Zealand. I had only been there once, on my roadtrip last summer before starting the Routeburn Track. This time around, were going to properly explore it on the water. So, we took an obligatory touristy cruise first thing in the morning and had some impressive views with superb morning lighting. I’ll let the photos give you the rest of the words.