The Milford Track is remote, so remote in fact that you have to get a boat to the start and from the finish of it. There are no roads on the track, everything has to be walked in or brought in by helicopter. This, in its very essence was the appeal of walking the Milford Track for me. A four day walk through pristine rain forest wilderness, following crystal clear rivers, surrounded by snow capped mountains rising straight up from steep sided valleys sounds just like heaven, and in a way it is.
It’s a walk that takes some planning, you can’t just turn up on the day and do it, and not just because you can only get to the start by boat. Accommodation is limited and the DOC (Department of Conservation) only allow so many people on the track at any one time. This means you have to get online when the bookings open to ensure you have a bed in the huts and a boat ride at the start and finish. The track is only walked one way and you have to stop at the accommodation huts in order. The upside of this is it provides a little community of fellow walkers that you will meet, walk with and get to know a little over the four days. It also means that no one passes you going the other way and if you choose to, you can have the track effectively to yourself by walking at your own pace away from the other walkers. Walking the Milford Track had long been a dream of mine. And life is too short and too fragile to let dreams go unfulfilled, and so it was that I found myself half way across the world on the shores of Lake Te Anau one November day, about to embark on a journey along ‘The Finest Walk in the World’. It truly was a magnificent trip and I hope you enjoy reading about it.
Day One Glade Wharf to Clinton Hut
After collecting our boat and hut tickets at the visitor centre at Te Anau Gwen and I took a slow drive to Te Anau Downs and are now sitting in our hire car, enjoying our take away lattes and looking out over lake Te Anau and the boat jetty that marks the start of our adventure. The first day of the Milford Track, by anybody’s reckoning is a short one. It’s only three miles from the landing stage at Glade Wharf to Clinton Hut our first bed for the night so in some ways it’s just an introduction, a taster of what is to come over the next three days.Â
As the boat pulls onto the jetty there is a last minute panic as I wonder if I have packed everything I will need for four days independent hiking into my rucksack. Having satisfied myself that I have everything or what I don’t have I can do without, I lock the car key in a lockbox so it can be relocated to Milford Sound for our collection at the end and we walk down the jetty and board the ‘Fiordland Express’ along with about thirty other people. There is a mixture of ‘independent trampers’ like ourselves and guided walkers along with some of their guides. Rain clouds scud ominously across the sky as we set off and the forecast of rain was proving to be accurate.
The Milford Track is located in Fiordland National Park, South West New Zealand. On average it receives about twenty three feet of rain a year. It’s no surprise that a rain forest needs a lot of rain and the track is renowned for its rainfall, but I was secretly hoping that it wouldn’t rain for four straight days as it does on occasions. The boat journey took about an hour and it gave Gwen and I a bit of time to relax, collect our thoughts and enjoy the scenery of lake Te Anau. On the way to Glade Wharf there is a small island with a cross on it, a memorial to Quintin Mackinnon. In 1888 Mackinnon, a Scot, was the first person to find an overland route into Milford Sound and it’s essentially that route that we will be following and crossing over the pass named after him in two days time. Sadly he drowned in Lake Te Anau only four years later. As the boat pulls onto the jetty at Glade Wharf there is a ripple of excitement and everybody is keen to get going. There is a pause however as we first have to wash our boots in a chemical solution designed to prevent the spread of Didymo, an invasive algae that chokes up waterways and would damage the delicate ecosystem if allowed to spread.
Having washed our boots and taken an obligatory picture at the sign we finally take our first steps on the Milford Track just as a light rain starts to fall. After the anticipation and then the rush of getting on and off the boat, washing boots and taking pictures it feels good to be finally walking along the track. After only twenty minutes or so we arrive at Glade House, the lodge that the guided Walkers on the track get to stay in. For a significant cost they get to enjoy hot showers, restaurant food with alcohol and presumably soft comfortable beds. For ‘independent trampers’ like us, no such luxuries await at Clinton lodge which lies about an hour further on. Just past the lodge we cross the Clinton river for the first time on the first, and longest suspension bridge of the track.
After the bridge the track follows the Clinton river and as we walk along we can see Fantails darting across the river, snapping up bugs with lightning precision as they go. All around us are South Island Robins. With the guided walkers all stopped at Glade House Gwen and I find ourselves at the back of the independent trampers group and we have the path more or less to ourselves giving us a chance to take in our surroundings.
All around us is dense, verdant and luxuriously green rain forest. Not the green of city trees or urban hedges but a rich, pollution free green of many different shades. Looking into the forest, it seems so dark and impenetrable only yards from the path that I spare a thought for Mackinnon, who had no path to follow but hacked his way through this uncharted terrain 130 years ago. There is also an atmosphere of quiet  peacefulness. It’s not silent of course, there is an abundance of sound. The birds singing unseen in the trees, the soft gentle noise of the rain falling onto the forest canopy and dripping down moss covered bark and vines onto the giant ferns and leaves surrounding us, the sound of the river rushing over its stony bed as it makes its way to the lake and finally the rhythmic crunching sound of our own boots as we walk along the grit path. No, the rain forest is not silent, but it is incredibly peaceful.
I have wanted to walk ‘The finest walk in the world’ for decades and have come half way around the world to walk in this pristine rain forest wilderness so I am in no rush, I want to savor every footstep and enjoy every minute of the next four days. The only people near us are an Australian couple who seem to have the same mindset and we criss-cross each along the path. After another hour or so of walking we arrive at Clinton hut. I’m pleasantly surprised to get a bottom bunk as we are one of the last to arrive and after signing in and claiming our beds we cross the wooden boardwalk from the bunk house to the kitchen/dining area and enjoy a nice cup of tea and some rice and pitta bread for dinner.
At 8pm Ross, the hut warden tells us the hut rules and then provides us with a very entertaining talk about some of the birds and other wildlife that we may see over the next few days. I’m in bed just after nine and fall asleep to the sound of rain hammering on the corrugated roof of the bunk house.
For map, route details and picture gallery of this walk click on ‘Learn more’ below
