Te Anau, New Zealand, 17 & 21-22 March 2008
Being hikers, or trampers as they are known in NZ, we were keen to do the best of what NZ had to offer. The most famous walk in the country is The Milford Trek. It is limited to 40 independent walkers starting on the trail per day and so books up months in advance. Thankfully you can check on-line as to whether there is any availability. When we started checking in early January the earliest we could have gotten on the trail was mid April....when we would be in Oz. We kept checking periodically and low and behold, just before we left Wellington, we spotted 2 spaces available for the 18th of March. This was ideal as it fitted in perfectly with our timeline. Yep, sometimes we can be extremely jammy. Arriving in Te Anau on St. Patricks Day we didn't have much time for celebrating. Between hiring essential equipment, buying the necessary provisions, and getting the backpacks into a state of hike-readiness I, Dave, only had time for one can of draught Guinness to remind me of my grass roots back home. Quietest Paddy's Day in a long time.
The Milford Trek is a 4 day hike. You are only permitted to do it in one direction (S -> N). You need to take a boat journey to the head of the trail and another one away from the end of the trail. Even though the first day involves only an hour and a half hiking time, you are not permitted to hike on to the next hut, i.e. you must stay at each of the 3 huts on your given day. We were going as "Freedom walkers" but you could also choose to walk the trail as part of a guided group, however this costs about 2000 dollars per person!! Guided walkers stay at different huts and don't need to carry any food or bedding as this is all provided.
Day 1. We left our faithful Corolla at Te Anau Downs and boarded the boat to Gladewharf on a beautifully sunny day. We walked through a pleasant beech wood before arriving at Clinton Hut, our digs for the night. The first thing that hit us, literally, were the enormous bumble bees. They were like something from a children's cartoon story book, "now children, this is what a bumble bee looks like", where the bee takes up the whole page. Maybe they're a remnant from prehistoric times, the missing bumble bee link. The hut itself was basic but clean and well organised. As the day progressed more and more people started arriving and it became a little like that first day at school. You will be spending a lot of time with these people so may as well get to know them. The bottle of whisky we packed helped in this regard (thanks for the tip Sharon/Glen). Apart from a little snoring, coughing, sneezing, farting, wheezing, and belching in our bunk room we all slept pretty well and we were back on the trail by 8.15 the following morning. 
Day 2 was a relatively flat 16.5km from Clinton to Mintaro hut. We couldn't resist taking a quick diversion to Pompolona Hut. This is where the guided walkers spend their second night. Outside the hut was a board declaring that their 3 course evening meal would consisted of panfried baby chicken with a medley of garden vegetables & hokey pokey ice cream with chocolate sauce. Geez, I really wish we hadn't made that diversion. We arrived at Mintaro early (1.30pm) so after a leisurely break, and since the weather was still good, we decided we should take advantage of it and undertook the 3 hour round trip up to the top of the McKinnon Pass and back. Katrine and Daniel (Ozzy's living in Wellington) joined us, which was a little surprising really since this was their first ever trek and they had only just arrived at Mintaro as we were leaving. Fortunately the weather held and we had good views from the top into the surrounding valleys. The walk back to the hut was a silent one as all bodies were tired after the long day of trekking.
Day 3 started, for us at least, with another walk up to McKinnon pass. The views at the top were obscured by cloud which made us feel a little better about our previous days efforts. Then it was down, down, down to Quinton hut. This is a guided walkers lodge but there is a hut here also for independent and day hikers. The Quinton staff are good enough to stock thhis hut with tea, coffee, milk, sugar, and boiling water. We were first to arrive here and enjoyed a nice lazy lunch in what felt like the height of luxury. Then it was time for a side trip to Sutherland falls, New Zealand's highest at 580m. Being of an adventurous spirit I, Dave, felt obliged to walk behind the falls. It was very invigorating but man-alive, I got soaked to the bone. Hmm, what did you expect? Worth it though. An hour and a half later we were relaxing, in dry clothes, at Dumpling hut. There were a couple of market research people looking for feedback on the Milford trek. They snagged Claire and I for a 20 minute interview. While we both agreed it was a really nice walk we also both agreed that we didn't think it was "The Finest Walk in the World".
Day 4 was an 18km walk from Dumpling Hut to Sandfly Point. There are a few nice swing bridges and stop off points (Bell Rock, Mackay Falls, Giant Gate Falls) along the way. Speaking of sandlfy point we should mention that if you stopped for any length of time on the Milford trek you will very quickly find yourself surrounded by the blighters. Most annoying they are too with an extremely itchy bite. Timing it nicely we arrived at Sandfly Point at 1:30pm, took the obligatory end of trail photograph & hopped on the 2pm boat to Milford Sound. The views on the boat journey were beautiful but we were quite happy to immediately get on the 2:30pm bus to our awaiting car at Te Anau Downs. Then it was into the nearest chippie to commence operation recovery "two fish & chips please & don't spare the Salt & vinegar", mmmm delicious.We stayed two more nights in Te Anau following our trek and just chilled out. On the second night we visited the local boutique cinema and watched the entertaining & quirky comedy "Darjeeling Limited" about 3 brothers travelling through India trying to regain some of their childhood camaraderie. The cinema itself was tiny, with big comfy seats with place trays for your drinks. There was also an intermission to enable you to top up your glass of wine or pick up another ice-cream for the second half of the movie.
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