This is Part 2 of the Milford Adventure:

The Milford Track is arguably the most famous of all tramps in New Zealand. It is located in Fiordland National Park, is 53 km in length and takes 4 days to hike at a reasonable pace. It starts at the end of Lake Te Anau and ends up in Milford Sound (another world-famous location). Despite all my tramping around New Zealand through the years, I had never done the Milford track before. It is next to impossible to do the trip via the DOC huts which are on the track. Last year, the dates sold out in under 4 minutes. Occasionally you can pick up a cancelation, but you better be flexible and ready to go on a moment notice. As an FYI to DOC, you should really move to a lottery system if you have that much demand. Just sayin’.

You can also book through the private company Ultimate Hikes. They have some very nice lodges that make the DOC huts look rickety. We used them for the Routeburn and thought they did a great job. They are not cheap, but Susanne is down with the good food, hot shower, and comfy room style of tramping. To be honest, after a few crinkly bag ladies and 10 pm dinner makers in the DOC huts, I can’t blame her.

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Milford Day 1: Alpine Cafe to Glade House (1.6 km)

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The first day of the tramp is hardly a day of tramping. It is a lot of logistics, waiting, and bus and boat rides. We got up in the morning and did the final pack on our stuff. I was a bit worried about my new boots, so ended up packing a pair of light weight hikers just in case. Susanne’s hip had been a bit iffy, so I volunteered to take some of her stuff as well. And of course my lead brick of a camera. In the end, I had a pretty full pack pushing 12 kg. That was fine, because I wanted to keep my training going and with all the tramping I have been doing, it didn’t seem too bad. But so much for having a light pack for the trip.

We got to the Alpine Cafe at 11:30, sorted the car parking and headed into to check in. The nice woman told us to wait and she would warn us before the bus from Queenstown showed up so that we could get in line for lunch first. We had lunch and chatted with a few folks.

There are a lot more logistics for Milford than Routeburn which does seem to mean that you do a bit of hurry up and wait. But hey, we’re retired, so what’s the hurry?

It takes about an hour on the boat to get to the end of the lake where you start the hike officially. There are a number of signs and spray stations that they have to make sure you don’t transmit nasties into the waterways on the track. You have to wash your poles and your boots before you start hiking. It is a massive 1.6 km hike to Glade House, the first lodge of the trip. We got there around 3:30 pm, got checked in, took a group photo, and then did a little bit of a nature hike around the place.

At dinner we sat with a couple from Ft. Collins and their sister who lived in Nelson. Simon, a Kiwi, was a mathematics professor at CSU and Nan was a now-retired plant biologist. In my always present effort as a failed stand up comedian, I asked Simon how it works out that a mathematician hangs out with a NaN (not a number). Let’s just say the joke didn’t quite have the effect I was hoping for. It was either (a) too nerdy, (b) a bad joke, or (c) all of the above. I think my Netflix comedy special is still a ways off.

We had our briefing after dinner that night where everyone gets up and says a few words about why they are on the trip and where they were from. It became somewhat hilarious as everyone went through where they came from because it became evident that about 1/2 of the entire population of Nelson was on the trip. In all we had 44 guests and 4 guides. I think 22 of the guests were from Nelson.

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Milford Day 2: Glade House to Pompolona Lodge (18 km)

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The weather forecast for day 2 was a bit iffy with some pretty good rain showers expected after noon. We packed up our stuff and headed out with the group. I am unused to hiking in such a big group and initially it is a bit off-putting, but pretty quickly everyone sorts themselves out and it is not too bad. The day was mostly flat with a slow steady climb through the beech forest.

As we progressed the clouds really started to build up around the mountains with the occasional drizzle. We made it to the lunch shelter just as the rain really started to pick up and come down in earnest. Luckily, there were only 5 km to go for the day.

We had talked to some folks at the Alpine Cafe that had just finished the Milford and we mentioned that it was going to rain on Tuesday. The said “that’s the best day to have rain!” I would have to agree. Walking up the valley with all of the waterfalls raging, the mountains towering above and the clouds moving in and out was pretty darn cool. Although it was raining pretty hard, it wasn’t very cold. The one big bummer is that we learned that Susanne’s rain jacket had progressed from a rain jacket to a wind breaker. She was getting soaked to a squishy due to this equipment malfunction. I guess we should have tested it out beforehand…doh!

As we approached the Pompolona lodge, the rain relented and we even started to see some blue sky. We got to our room, put on some dry clothes and took all the wet squishy stuff to the drying rooms. That is another nice thing about the swanky hiking is that you can get everything dry for the next day. Overall, it was a pretty easy day of hiking even with the rain.

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Milford Day 3: Pompolona lodge to Quintin lodge (22 km)

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This is the big day on the Milford Track as it goes up and over McKinnon Pass with a side hike to Sutherland Falls. The brochure shows it as 15 km to the lodge, but my Garmin registered 17.5 km. I don’t know why my distances are always a bit longer; I guess I wander around a lot taking pictures. The climb up (700 m) isn’t the hard part; it is the 900 m of descent on the backside. It is a wee bit rocky, to say the least.

The climb up to the top wasn’t too bad as the gradient is pretty consistent and the footing pretty good. Toward the top though, the window was howling out of the south. Brrrrr. Nothing but water between here and Antartica. As we piled on all our clothes before reaching the saddle, three Keas gave us a nice show on the trail — that was cool.

The views at the top of the saddle were amazing! We got a perfect partly cloudy day which just made the mountains pop. We checked out the McKinnon memorial and stared over the edge of the cirque wall all the way down to the lodge we would be staying at that night—it looked so close … but so many knee crushing boulder step-downs away.

We made our way up to the summit and then headed down to the shelter for lunch. The clouds had moved in and it was getting pretty cold now and my hands were freezing. Susanne was right to be concerned about her leaky rain jacket; if it had been raining this would have been a pretty dangerous place to be when you are soaked to a squishy. Luckily it was dry.

After lunch we started down the descent. Things were a bit wet from the rain, so you had to be extra careful as we came down off the cirque wall. It was slow going for sure. Once we got down the steep cliff, the trail eased up a bit, but still required a constant planting of poles and stepping down big boulders. Oh, these descents are tough on the old knees, dat is 4 sure.

The cutoff time to be allowed to go up to Sutherland Falls was 4:30 pm. We reached the half-way down shelter at about 2 pm, so I told Susanne that I was going to go ahead and make sure I made it to the falls. She had already decided that she did not need the extra kms for the day and would rather sit in the bar contemplating the importance of fermentation in our lives.

The trail was still rocky but much easier, so I was able to blast down to the lodge in about 40 minutes. I got our room, did a quick reset and then headed up to the falls. I smartly forgot my hiking poles for which I was sorry. Doh. The walk wasn’t hard, but I was tired.

The falls are amazing. 580 meters high and pouring out of a hanging lake. I took some pics and then headed back to the lodge. By the time I got there I was ready for a shower and to help Susanne in her cogitation on the benefits of fermentation.

This is definitely the hardest day on the hike and the descent is a bit rough on old knees and tired bods. Susanne did great but it again highlights how rugged these mountains are to hike around in.

Final chapter to come next.