2 Walk On!: Squelching along Milford Track

In New Zealand hiking is called tramping and that is certainly what we have been doing over the last four days. Today is the fifth day since we left our HF group and joined the Ultimate Hikes group to walk the Milford Track. Today, our last day, no tramping, just a cruise along Milford Sound then a bus ride back to Te Anau. There are only two ways to do the Milford track these days. As an independent walker, carrying your own gear, food, sleeping bag, pots etc. and you stay in the Dept. of Conservation (DOC) huts, having registered a year in advance, or with Ultimate Hikes Company which is the only company that can offer guided hikes on Milford and Routeburn, two of the 10 top hikes NZ offers. The guided hike groups have different huts which are fully catered and staffed by Ultimate Hikes Company. We are incredibly impressed with this company and their guides.

There were 42 people in our group and 4 guides. This company sends out a group every day of up to 50 trampers, seven days a week for the season which is Nov 1 to end of April. The guides have a 6 month contract. Our 4 guides were very qualified, very friendly and very organized. The only downside to our whole experience was that of the 42 in our group, 28 where a family/friends group along to hike to celebrate one of their group's 50th birthday. This included 8 kids with the youngest being 10. They mostly remained their own group and mixed very little with the rest of the group, the remaining 14 of which we were a part.

Oh and then the rain. It rained and rained and rained and rained. The guides kept telling us how lucky we were to see the track at its best. Hard to keep reminding yourself when you are hiking along soaked to the skin and squelching in your hiking boots that have been wet for 3 days. The first day it only sprinkled, the second day it was nice for the first hour or so then it started. It rained the rest of the day. By the third day it poured all day and all night, and not just rain, pouring rain, buckets of it, cats and dogs too! On day 4 we could not leave to tramp out the last 21k as the DOC had closed the trail due to high water levels. The water had risen 2m in 24 hours. That's meters not inches. Finally by noon Ultimate Hikes flew their helicopter in and we were airlifted out 6 at a time 5 miles down the trail. From there we walked out to Sandfly Creek where we were served hot chocolate inside a shelter to wait for the little boat that would take us acrss the end of Milford Sound to our final night in their hotel at Mitre Peak Lodge, 12 at a time, once again totally soaked. Even with full rain gear on and pack covers over our packs, there was no hope of staying dry. The last two days saw us hiking through rivers that had overflowed their banks, waterfalls going across the trail, and trails with the stream running down the middle. Twice we had to cross raging rivers with two of the guides helping us. Usually in the summer the trampers can walk on the rocks above the water level. So as our guides kept telling us, we were very lucky to be seeing all these waterfalls!!! . "Awesome" was the most used adjective of the trip.

I can't show you all the pictures and there were many times I could not get the camera out because of the adverse weather but this might give you a flavor.