New Zealand Part 4: Milford Sound and Milford Track
This past week we explored Milford Sound and hiked the renowned Milford Track. Milford Sound and Milford Track are within Fiordland National Park, which is designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Track is a 4 day/3 night hike that ends right near Milford Sound and permits book out on the day they open. It’s the most competitive Great Walk permit in New Zealand to and one of the most competitive hikes to get permits for in the world. Given how popular this route is, we were hoping it lived up to the anticipation.
Unfortunately, the weather was not looking good for our 4 days. The first two days looked good (not great) and the second two days were supposed to be quite rainy. We arrived in Te Anau on Monday, the day before our hike began. We did the required check in at the Department of Conservation office and they confirmed our weather outlook - it wasn’t looking good. That day was nice though so we thought we’d take advantage of it and drive Milford Road to the Sound itself.
I had seen photos of the primary view of Milford Sound before, but I didn’t realize how expansive of an area it was. Fiordland National Park is massive and most of it is remote wilderness. Even just driving the Milford Road (the most heavily trafficked part of the park) the views were stunning and the “Milford Sound experience” was so much more than that single view.
Grady had identified a few places we wanted to stop along the Milford Road in addition to the ad hoc stops at most of the scenic pull offs. The first of those stops was supposed to be a “quick waterfall” that I thought was just off the road. I didn’t change out of my white sneakers I was wearing in the car because it was “a quick walk”, but that turned into the muddiest hike that went up and over roots/rocks to reach the falls. Even though my shoes were brown by the end, it ended up being super cool. I can’t complain too much as Grady hiked it in flip flops. He almost “busted his plugger” in his flip flops after stepping in mud half way up his calves. We were the people on this hike that we often comment on for being unprepared, but it was a product of our own laziness not choosing to walk back to the car (5 min away) after seeing that it was in fact a short hike up a very muddy and steep trail.
It was worth it though because there was nobody at the waterfall and my shoes cleaned up well in the river afterwards! They live to see another unexpected muddy hike.
Our next stop was Lake Marian to do a quick afternoon hike. There were tons of people on the trail, but we enjoyed trying to cruise up as quickly as we could. It’s fun that Grady did this hike with Zach, McCall, and Adam back when they studied here too. When we arrived to the lake the water level was unbelievably high. Normally you can walk around the lake a bit on the rocky shore, but the water was so high that no shore existed. It made it very difficult to have a good view of the lake so everyone was clustered together in the high grass at the small opening of a view.
Since it was so crowded we didn’t stay long and we hiked back down quickly to make dinner along the Milford Road before spending some time at the Sound. Our timeline was a bit more rushed because we learned earlier that day that the Homer Tunnel to the Sound was closing at 8. We were confused and moderately frustrated by this because it meant we couldn’t stay for sunset, but alas - we complied.
The Sound was stunning. It was low tide when we arrived which gave Grady an opportunity to scout it out for a time when we can return for sunset photography with no tunnel closure - if the construction ends on time at the end of February…
We made it back to the tunnel before the 8 pm closure and had a chance encounter with a local who had run out of gas. We didn’t have the gear to help him siphon gas (no surprise), but his friend was on the way to help. We chatted with him while he waited and learned that the tunnel closures are very strict at 8 pm due to the construction hazards so we were glad to have exited when we did.
We camped at the nearest DOC campsite (40 min away) so that we could return to the sound at sunrise. The most eventful part of the stay was the Weka running around stealing people’s food and looking like a little Velociraptor. It also looked like we missed a beautiful sunset but enjoyed some cookies at the campsite instead.
It was an early morning wake up for a dud of a sunrise. We arrived at the tunnel right before 6 am (the reopening time) and Milford Sound was completely clouded in. We couldn’t see anything. Our consolation for no view was that we tried our aeropress for the first time and it was so much better than our French Press and 10 times easier to clean. We love it.
We stopped at Mirror Lake on the drive back to Te Anau where we got everything organized for backpacking in time to catch our 1:15 pm bus.
The Milford Track is unique in that there are a lot of logistical pieces to accompany the walking. You take a bus to a dock where you catch a boat to the start of the hike. Then you hike 4 days to a different area of the park where a different boat picks you up, takes you to Milford Sound, and you catch a bus back to Te Anau from there.
We arrived at the bus with a few minutes to spare so Grady ran back to the car to grab more sunscreen. It was sunny after all so we thought it would be a good idea. The bus driver laughed and said something to the effect of seeing the forecast. What a treat it sounded like we were in for!
Our bus pulled up to the boat slip and there was a big coach bus branded “ultimate hikes” with tons of people pouring out with small rental backpacks that couldn’t have held more than water and snacks.
We soon learned that those people were doing the track as a guided hike at high-end alternate lodges. You can imagine this became a topic of fun conversation for all of the “independent walkers” as we were called.
We somehow were booked on the smaller boat (8 people) which was cooler and more enjoyable than the big boat (~50 passengers) only because the lake was calm that day… it would have been a disaster in choppy conditions.
It worked out well to be on the smaller, faster boat because we arrived ahead of the rest of the people doing our route and the guided walkers.
The first day was short at only 5 km. We walked through amazing forests covered in moss - all beautifully lit by the afternoon light peeking through the tree canopy. It was a graded, soft, and flat trail along a turquoise river and we started to wonder if it’d be this manicured the whole way.
We passed huge trees and a vista of “Dore Pass”, which we of course got excited about.
When we passed the fancy lodge (for the guided walkers) we saw it was set up like a hotel. The rooms had big picture windows opening onto the view and you could see the towels folded on the bed like you’d see in a honeymoon suite. Immediately the speculations began about the experience of the guided walkers.
We continued our hike towards the Clinton Hut run through the Department of Conservation. When we arrived we took a quick swim in the river and joined the nature walk that the Ranger was hosting. There we heard a very true Kiwi man tell us all about the local plants. It was interesting and enjoyable, but the biggest benefit was delaying our dinner to a normal time to eat since we’d been hungry since 4 pm!
At the hut talk that evening the Ranger told us about the Māori (Native NZ people) legend of the narrow valleys, steep walls, and towering peaks of the Fiordland area. The legend goes: Tu-te-raki-whanoa created the Fiordland area by hacking great gashes into the glaciated mountains with his toki (axe) shaping the land as he traveled. Milford Sound was the last fiord he carved so it is the most perfect and sharply defined. After the beautiful shaping that Tu-te-raki-whanoa did, the Māori Gods recognized that Milford Sound was so beautiful that people would want to stay too long. To combat that, the goddess of the underworld, Te Hinenuitepo created the sand fly to keep them from staying. Sand flies are bad on the west coast of NZ, but really bad in Fiordland. They’re kind of like mosquitos, but they’re active during all daytime hours and their bites hurt and are itchy. They swarm you instantly. If the goal was to make people only want to visit for a short time, I think they succeeded!
Our first hut friends were Jeff & Virginia - a really cool couple in their 70s from Seattle who have done some amazing trips and mountaineering expeditions. Turns out they have traveled a bunch to Nepal and shared some great ideas with us for our travels there. Our other hut friends became a German couple (Nic & Charly) and a Dutch guy, Jesper, all of whom we really enjoyed talking to.
This is a unique hike because you go hut-to-hut with the same group of 40 people for 4 days/3 nights. It’s fun to get to know people more as the trip goes on and we were fortunate to get some great people in our “tramping” group. It’s amazing how quickly you can feel like you get to know people in these settings.
We played cards with Charly, Nic, and Jesper, and while it was the same game we often play at home, it was cool to see how the game had evolved through different people bringing their own rules variations and that we all play the same games across countries.
We went back to our bunks at 9 pm and were surprised to find everyone else was already asleep. Many were snoring too. We also noticed that three people who had been wearing N-95 masks during the hut talk had dragged their mattresses outside to sleep, which was a bit odd considering it was a cold evening.
The weather has been much colder here in general than we expected. It’s mid-summer here, but we’ve been pretty frequently wearing sweatshirts and jackets and I think the highs on the nice days have been in the mid 60s but many days cooler. We weren’t sure if this was normal or not, but turns out 68 is the average high for this time of year in most all of the South Island.
Grady was the last one to wake up at 6:40 am. Seems like everyone is an early riser in this group. I woke up to people in our bunk room packing up their bags around 6:15, but somehow Grady slept through it. We were in the last wave of people to leave the hut and hiked steadily, but stopped to take pictures a lot because the steep glacial walls of the valley were so impressive.
As we were hiking, Grady kept commenting on how this was the best air ever. It’s true, we felt like we could breathe endless deep breaths and it smelled so good and so pure. We started speculating it could be the best air quality in the world. After looking it up, it’s probably not too far off with an AQI below 5.
We continued up the valley and couldn’t believe how high the tree line was. We passed an old shelter called the bus stop that we think was used way back when the original explorers and inhabitants brought tourists here. It reminded us of being similarly surprised to see a “bus stop” on the track when we hiked a different trail here with Adam and his brother, Nathan, years ago.
There was a lot of bracket fungus on the trees, which maybe isn’t great for the trees, but they were interesting to see. We went over a number of “swing bridges” which are cabled suspension bridges that vary between 1-20 people rated loads. They shake around a bit as you walk across as the cables are moving with the loads so it makes things fun crossing each river. It’s honestly amazing how they have all the cables secured into the rocks near the crossings.
We ended up being the first people to arrive at the Mintaro hut and we promptly housed a family sized bag of chips (called chippies here) on the porch before a quick swim.
The Mintaro Hut is now the nicest hut we’ve been to and it was just spectacular. Even outranks the Copeland hut! It was built within the last 4 years and has huge windows looking up at the pass that would be our adventure of the next day.
The weather outlook for the next day wasn’t promising and McKinnon pass is a highlight of the Milford Track. We and maybe 10 others from the hut decided to get some extra credit points and hike up to the pass in the afternoon to ensure we could see it in good lighting. Then we’d hike back down to do it all over again in the morning. The hike started in the dense forest, but soon the mountains started to emerge.
We enjoyed spending time with others up at the pass and together, speculated the meals that are served at the fancy guided huts. The consensus was platters of welcome drinks upon arrival, passed hors D'oeuvres, and a plated 3 course meal with NZ lamb for dinner. Perhaps we’ll never know!
The hut posted guidance to leave the pass at 5:30 pm to be back in time for the 7:30 pm safety briefing by the Ranger. This was in direct conflict with Grady’s desire to shoot sunset photos up there. We were unsure how to proceed, but we decided it was safety guidance since there are a lot of inexperienced hikers that do the Great Walks. We made a plan that Grady would take our inreach, layers, food, water, and his GPS on his phone and I would attend the safety briefing for both of us. Then I could discuss with the Ranger if they had any concerns. I had a plan for how to navigate that, but good news / bad news, the weather turned quickly on the pass so Grady zipped back down to the hut. He made it down in 36 minutes, arriving at 7:24 when the safety talk and “head count” started at 7:30. Phew!
Several of us observed that the same people were dragging their mattresses outside under the covered porch again - this time when it was raining. Once they were heard coughing, everyone in the hut independently started referring to them as the “covid people”. I guess their suspicion was the same as ours.
Grady decided he’d wake up to see if it was clear enough for a potential sunrise on the pass and if it looked good, hike up early. The 5 am alarm had to be on silent / vibrate mode only to not wake up the 8 other people in our bunk room. We made a plan the night before to meet at the top of the pass mid morning and split up some food & snacks. The ranger had written the forecast on the whiteboard the evening prior with “Persistent Rain” for that day, but we were hopeful.
When I woke up at 6:30 the hut was full of commotion with people getting ready for the day. I was excited that Grady had left because it meant that conditions must have looked good for sunrise. They were!
While Grady was up on the pass hanging out with the Kea and the Weka, I had a nice breakfast with Charly, Nic, and Jesper before leaving to hike up to the pass at 8. I made it up in 54 minutes (proudly beating our 1 hr 3 min time from the day prior) and passed 28 people. Both of which were (of course) the first things I told Grady when I reached the top. I often don’t feel like I push myself as much when I’m hiking alone so I was proud to have done that!
The hike started off with clear visibility and good weather, but quickly became foggy and cloudy when I neared the top. The visibility dropped to 15-20 feet ahead of me, but the well placed orange trail markers made navigating really easy.
We met up at the shelter according to plan and decided to wait there for a while to see if conditions improved. After about an hour, they became near perfect.
It cleared and the low clouds were moving quickly which created cool, dynamic landscapes.
There were two very active and curious Kea hanging out at the top of the pass. They’re Grady’s favorite animal now because they make the funniest noises and are wildly fun to watch.
McKinnon Pass was an absolute highlight of the Milford Track. It was breathtaking. We were so glad to have hiked up the day before to see it in different conditions too. After spending 3 hours on the pass we finally started hiking our long descent down to the next hut.
We went above this cool gorge with a waterfall of ice blue water running over flat rocks, almost like a water slide. We arrived at Dumpling Hut and the sand flies were our welcome party. We ended up having a spectacular day with no rain despite the ominous forecast so we were counting our blessings. The sand flies kept us inside spending time with our hut friends - Nick, Charly, Jesper, Jeff, Virginia, and another couple originally from Poland and Scotland who live in Auckland now. The only people who spent time outside were the “COVID people” again… hmm.
Dumpling Hut receives 9 meters of rain per year and we saw a taste of that when it started pouring at 9 pm and didn’t stop. Even after raining all night, it was still down pouring when we woke up. Everybody was moving early that day because they had to catch 2 pm boats to make 2:30 pm buses back to cars in Te Anau and Queenstown.
We were the last to leave the hut… again. It turns out that Grady accidentally ate all of my breakfast the previous day when he was on top of the pass. We had packed almost a full bag of muesli (granola cereal) and enough powdered whole milk to make 2L of milk. The plan was for each of us to have that for one of our breakfasts and to have leftover powdered milk. I sent it with Grady since it’s a meal that could be made cold and figured he would stick to the plan and eat half. None came back. He made cereal with the densest milk anyone has probably ever drank and must have had multiple enormous bowls. Anyway, we realized that and he had to make our extra dinner we unintentionally brought for breakfast. I’ve never been happier to carry an extra full box of risotto for 4 days. Since Risotto isn’t the speediest meal to make - we were the last ones to leave the hut… again.
It was pouring rain for the first 3 hours of the hike so we tried to just keep moving and made pretty good time. Then, the skies started lightening up and it turned beautiful.
We slowed down as the weather got better because we couldn’t stop taking photos. The rain had created what looked like hundreds of waterfalls running down the steep mountains and in the forest the wet moss, ferns, and trees looked so beautiful and smelled so good.
We had allocated 5 hours for ourselves to get out and make our boat and we timed it well with 20 min to spare. The happy surprise was that our boat to leave was a jet boat and went 60 mph nearly bouncing across the lake. It was SO fun. The captain said it can go 120 which is hard to believe based on how fast 60 felt!
When you do the Milford Track you book all of your transportation / logistics through one of a few companies. The company we chose subcontracts out the busses to other companies - one of which is named TrackNet and one is Track Transfer. They sound similar so everyone told us our bus would be TrackNet. We showed up for the TrackNet bus and they didn’t have a reservation for us and wouldn’t accept us. Nobody in the ferry terminal knew of Track Transfer so after calling the company we booked through - it turned out our bus was leaving in 5 minutes from a different location in Milford Sound that was at minimum a 10 minute walk away. Yikes! We were lucky that our kind bus driver, Ben, drove over to pick us up. There were only about 10 of us on our bus and we were so lucky that several of our hut friends were on this bus too - they all cheered when we got on and that we didn’t miss the bus.
We drove out Milford Road and the waterfalls were stunning from all of the recent rain. Some of the waterfalls there are permanent, but many others are only visible after rain. The icing on the cake was that there was snow on the peaks from the night prior which made it extra beautiful - even if it doesn’t feel like mid summer!
We made it back to Te Anau and had fun getting dinner there with Charly, Nic, and Jesper a few hours later. After 4 days of hiking we all felt so fresh when we showed up to dinner all cleaned up! It was fun getting to spend extra time with all of them and share stories from all of our travels. We hope for all of our huts friends that our paths will cross again here or elsewhere!
Milford Track is the most popular and competitive Great Walk in New Zealand and for that reason, we weren’t sure what to expect. We thought it might be really easy or overhyped because of how many people try to secure permits each year, but it was truly beautiful. We think it lived up to the expectations, but maybe we’re biased because our forecasted bad weather turned into perfect conditions for the track. It was mostly sunny and beautiful, but we got to see all of the incredible, rain-fed waterfalls of Fiordland on the last day when hot showers and an Airbnb were in our future. Our bus driver back to Te Anau said that we had the best weather conditions of the entire season so far. So the weather and the fun people we hiked with probably had a big impact on how much we enjoyed it, but it was a really memorable, beautiful, and serene hike. We plan to come back to Milford Sound again so this isn’t the last time we’ll enjoy the pure air & crazy steep walls of these valleys! For now, we’ll be chasing weather windows for some of the hikes we’re most excited about around Mt. Cook, Queenstown, Fiordland, and the West Coast. We’ll share more soon!
A few fun new Kiwi expressions: “Sing out” meaning holler (as used: ‘Sing out if you have any queries!’) and “Fine” meaning beautiful day (as used: ‘The weather is “fine”’ means its sunny, blue skies, and beautiful)
