Day One: The Milford Track

After our pre-walk meeting, we are left thinking about how light we can make our packs while still having what we need to stay warm, dry and sweet-smelling for four days with 29 people. I have walked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon twice and so I'm thinking about switchbacks ('zigzags' here) and what that might mean in the hot sun or the driving rain with little cover from the surrounding terrain. We are committed to walking over a mountain pass (roughly sea level to 3278 ft). The Track leads from Lake Te Anau to the Milford Sound, a trek of 58.2 kilometers or 36.4 miles, if you take the side track to Sutherland Falls, which we fully intend. Our average is about 11.5 miles a day of hiking.

We all wake up and it’s RAINING. So the first thing we negotiate is whether or not to be humble and take a taxi to the pick-up point at the Station where we meet the group, or tough it out and be the trackers we want to show we are. Happily, the rain subsides and we can walk proudly with all of our gear down to the Station by 9:30 a.m. for our bus to Lake Te Anau Wharf. As you can see, we took to the back of the bus and began the fun without delay. We are Group #12 for this season - possibly a number that will be burned in the minds of our guides, as their luck would have it.

After a couple of hours on the bus, passing by the Remarkables, deer farms, hillsides of yellow broom and red tossack, we have our lunch in Mossburn and pick up another guide, and a SF couple on their honeymoon. From Mossburn, it’s a short jaunt to the wharf and our ferry across to the trailhead of the Milford Track.


The mountains looked rather rugged, but the chilly wind had us all invigorated to begin the short walk into Glade House. So we stop briefly to pose for a trailhead photo.




We are assigned bunk rooms as we arrive and then asked to reconvene for a bit of a nature walk around the area. One of our guides has been on the Milford Track for 5 years and leads our way through the moss-covered forest, giving us some bird call and plant identification. He talks about how the Maori used different plants and how early pioneer, Quintin MacKinnon, was the first to take on an overland route in 1888.

We have slide shows each night that give us instruction for the next day’s trek, as well as information about the birds, plants and geology we should look for. The bird call imitations have the group quite amused, and goads my group to join in the fun, setting the tone for our evenings. There was obviously some 'special' training involved for one guide in particular...

The first days...

As I arrive in Queenstown, it's quite apparent that any direction you look, there is a postcard in front of you. With my hiking boots in the foreground, here is the view from my hotel room.

It is early spring here, so there are fresh memories of a rather warm winter, as winters go in New Zealand. Apparently, the southern hemisphere - like we in the northern - have been experiencing shifts in climate, as I had heard in the taxi during the quick trip to the hotel. The Remarkables (top of the righthand picture), is the mountain range that faces Queenstown on the southeast side of town and is accurately named; I found myself glancing often in that direction so I could burn the view into my memory. Remarkable!

The rest of the group joining me are friends from Melbourne, Australia. I've never met three of them, but can't imagine that they aren't just my friends waiting to be friends. Once we are all checked in and have had a look around town, we find a nice place for dinner called DuxdeLux,











right off Lake Wakatipu - well, everything is right off Lake Wakatipu in Queenstown. We order seafood platters, calamari, Greek salad and a crispy New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. I'm so excited by meeting my travel partners and all the dishes coming to our table and those around us that I find it hard not to stare with a delighted smile (and maybe it was jet lag). They manage to get me out of the restaurant without incident. We have a big day planned tomorrow so we hike up the hill to our lodge and settle in.

Not ever having had a jetboat ride through canyons, we strike out after breakfast for the Powershot River. Some in our group want the thrill of speeding through jagged canyons within centimetres of disaster. They eagerly sit to listen to Ollie give instructions as they settle in to speed through this breathtaking river canyon. I'm not going to show you Ollie because he was only really memorable to one in our group and she will remain unnamed. (As will everyone...)

There were jetboats going across Lake Wakatipu each morning by 8 a.m. and then all throughout the day. I had to wonder when there would be a time that residents would request noise reduction - the boats were really loud! I guess the cost of development and popularity can get a little noisy, and there's no denying the thrill of a 360 degree turn in the middle of jagged rocks at good speed. The jetboat participants were all exhilarated by the experience and the smiles were not coming off for the rest of the trip.