The Rains Will Come:The Milford Track

The Milford Track is called "The Finest Walk in the World". I would like to happily rename it "The Wettest Walk in the World". Not that I am complaining. My trip is what it is. "Your lucky if it rains on the Milford" they said. "It's a completely different world. Waterfalls everywhere". That is fine and dandy..and they were correct, but what I didn't expect was three out of four days of deluge. And I used to think that Gortex was full of crap. I was wrong.

I had slipped into reservations for the Milford Track three months before my trip. This was a miracle. Considering it books up six months in advance during the high season and is the most popular Great Walk there is. Now having done it..I am not sure exactly why it is so popular other than a history of 19th century folk proclaiming its glory. It's not particular challenging. For most of it you could get a wheel chair up it. (I actually had a Kiwi tell me that). It actually had bathrooms every couple of miles or so. Its a mandatory four day track that starts with a boat ride up Lake Te Anau and walks through the heart of Fiordlands. First following the Clinton River and Valley, then up and over the Mackinnon Pass and then down the Arthur Valley ending in the great Milford Sound. The views were supposed to be amazing from Mackinnon Pass. There is an out house on the top of it that is supposed to have the best view while on a toilet in the world. Although I did use that outhouse, I wouldn't know about the view. The rainy clouds were so low it was as if I was going to the bathroom in the sky. Again.. I am not complaining. I have learned that the Milford Track is not about the track at all. Its about three things; water, wildlife, and the people that journey that it with you.


I have never really seen water before the Milford Track. Oh I have seen something like it before. It usually comes in the dark murky mess that we drink, bath or swim in everyday. But that is not water. Its water and something else. And most of the time alot of something else. And before I walked up the Clinton Valley on the first and second days of the Milford Track I had never seen water in its purest form. We are talking just one part oxygen and 2 parts hydrogen and nothing else. Water so clear and clean that you have no idea where the edge of it is or how deep it is because its like it is not there...its so clear. Water so clear that the one meter trout that are swimming next the eel in the water look as if they are a merely a foot below the surface when in fact they are twenty. The Clinton Valley has the cleanest watershed I have ever seen. Or how about the fact that after nearly 24 hours of raining on the second day that about every twenty feet there was a new waterfall cascading down the mountain side. You don't get to see that when it's dry. Or that fact that on the third day, after you hiked the long Clinton Valley and made it up over the Mackinnon Pass you can take a little side trip to the highest permanent waterfall in NZ: Southerland Falls. And if you are crazy enough, like I am, to take a walk behind the power and the fury of thousands of gallons of water falling nearly 603 meters to the rain forest floor. My second great New Zealand moment. (that's me in the picture praising life after walking behind the falls. It gives perspective..). After one short useless day of sun and three days of rain I had never been so wet. But a testament to the Italians that made my Gortex Asolo boots. My feet never got wet.

Or how about the birds that came to visit me daily. The Great thing about the Great Walks is the fact that the government agency that runs the Great Walks: The Department of Conservation (or DOC) cares also greatly about conserving the environment. I have never seen government agency so involved in the back country. Everyday I am out I feel as though big brother (DOC) is watching. If you sign up for a Great Walk you are signing up on a lesson in ecology, geology and the great lengths the DOC is going to keep invasive species at bay. (A huge problem for New Zealand...awe those pesky rabbits). Every night at the huts the hut warden gives a mandatory hut talk on things like the operation of the huts, the trail ahead of us, and the local animals in the area. On my first day on the trail after arriving at Clinton Hut I noticed some ducks on the river. I said to myself, " oh ducks". Ross-our hut warden (who looked like he strangely could be Sir Edmond Hilary's long lost brother) rather enthusiastically pointed out that these where in fact Blue Ducks..a rare species in New Zealand and a treat for us to see. There are only nine breading pairs in the world. Or as I approached the second hut, a Weka Bird crosses my path. Or on the third day a South Island Robin comes right up to me and pecks my boot. There are no large animals in New Zealand just heaps of birds. And this certainly was the place to see them.

But mainly the Milford Track is about the people that journey it with you. (more on people I met later) We all have interconnecting lines and every day about 40 of them converge on the Milford Track. And because you have to do the huts as they are arranged you get to know the 40 people that move from hut to hut with you quite well. Especially since day one and day two are relatively short hiking days and you have nothing better to do but sit around the hut and talk to everyone. Due to its popular nature its quite an international experience. There were 8 Israelis. No surprise there. I am begging to think that there is no one left actually in Israel... 8 Germans, 2 Italians, 2 Canadians, 4 Kiwis, 2 Dutch, 1 Australian and I the lone American. That fared well with my personality. I often got comments like "oh what is that crazy American doing today". I quite loved it.. but if one lonely trail in the middle of Fiorlands National Park can bring together the world into one line imagine what a global ecological plan can do?

Distance hiked on Milford Track: 53.5 Km (33.5 miles)
Distance hiked in New Zealand : 143.30 Km (89.04 miles)


Side note: I wound up in Milford Sound at the end of this trek. Where I proceeded to "Wait" to kayak Milford Sound due to the weather. I met a really great German couple on the Track and they invited me up to Key Summit on the Routeburn Track while I waited for the weather to clear. It finally did and I spent the next morning Kayaking the entire length of the sound out to the Tasman Sea as the sun rose early morning. The day was uncanny clear for the sound and both seal and dolphin swam along side of our convoy. My third great New Zealand moment. I am attaching a video of the dolphins.