Milford Track

3 days ago
12 min read

We are taking this hike again after 9 years to try to complete it. Last time we took it, this may have been my first organized hike and what began my love affair with hiking. In 2017 we made it to the base of McKinnon Pass (day 3) and the authorities closed the trail due to snow. As a result we were helicoptered to the top of the pass to continue from there. I have no written record of our last trip and very few photos, so have forgotten most of it.

Looking back on this hike and in summary: Despite the weather, what lovely hiking - probably some of the best I've done - 10/10. Most of the food and lodges was/were really good (next to last night was not good food) 8/10. I hate sandflies (and saliva doesn't stop the itching after a certain point) bug rating = 1/10. I would be happy if I never did another organized/guided hike.... organization rating = 1/10.

The total hiking distance was 33.5 miles (according to their calculations - mine came out longer by a few miles). Here is the route of the hike:

and here is what it looks like on a map...

March 13- Queenstown to Lake Te Anau and quick walk to Glade House. The weather was warm, but cloudy. The day started with a very nice water taxi to Queenstown

a quick coffee

followed by a rather long wait before we could board the 2 hour bus ride to Te Anau where we stopped for lunch. There are 49 of us on this hike. We didn't get close to anyone, but I can tell you the demographics generally were: 1/3 from New Zealand, 1/3 from the US, 4 from Canada and Chris was the only "European", even though the UK is not in Europe. Age-wise it was about 70% over 50 and about 30% under 50. This was a bucket list item for many of the hikers.

lunch was a chicken wrap, a vege wrap and a small cup of carrot/pumpkin soup. This was followed by a small square of carrot cake. There were models of extinct birds out in front of the cafe.

We had a 20 minute drive to the dock where we picked up the boat for the hour ferry crossing across Lake Te Anau. It was much warmer than 9 years ago, with very little snow on the peaks (left is 2026, middle is 2017). The crossing was calm.

We could see the cross where the boat/belongings of Quinton McKinnon were found. He disappeared and his body was never found.

A bit further on we saw the caves where were discovered Māori remains, which included green stone. These were removed and are currently in New Zealand museums so people wouldn’t walk off with them.

We got off at the dock and walked through the disinfectant to sterilize our boots.

Immediately we noticed sandflies coming towards us and we hoped for a stiff breeze. Not sure how many bites we’ll end up with…. (future note - my right hand is full of bites and postules - I have just taken an antihistimine.)

It was a 20 minute hike to Glade Lodge through a rain forest area.

The lodge is largely as it was 9 years ago, with the exception that the big wooden sign was no longer there. (here is a shot from today and one from 9 years ago...)

We have a single room with an en-suite bathroom (thank goodness) and no timed showers (thank goodness).

Our rooms have charging facilities which is a blessing, even if the generator goes off between 10 and 6:45….

We came outside for the group shot, but I haven't received that yet from the organizers.

And then went for an hour guided “nature walk” through the rain forest to the snow fed river that feeds into Lake Te Anau. You can still drink from the rivers here and it was beautiful.

Along the way (today and subsequent days) we saw wekas (wood hen) - flightless birds endemic to New Zealand.

an orchid

a lot of pretty fungus

and tomtits (today and subsequent days). Tomtits are fun because they come to you and aren't afraid to interact.

The forest is all beech trees. The trees grow on top of each other. Here you can see one main beech tree with 5 more beeches growing on it.

It's amazing how many different types of beeches there are.

Dinner was a chicken salad, venison stew, and apple tart for desert - it was all very good.

After dinner we all had to introduce ourselves (48 of us). Thankfully there wasn’t a test afterwards. This is the strongest reason that I hate organized hikes. I am also really tired of hearing the inane babble of 20-somethings - their talking in general and “explanations” specifically.

That done, we all escaped back to our respective rooms for an early start in the morning.

Before escaping too far, we went into the "history room" and found our inscription in the book from our last hike to James and Sasha, who we assumed would follow us at some point. Sadly, they haven't yet taken this hike, so we left them another message from this trip.

Along the way we re-created a photo from 2017 - can you tell which one is 2026? (hint: it's not the one on the right)

March 14 - Glade Lodge to Pampolona Lodge (not Pamplona)

The day started with breakfast and sandwich making; these photos are from later in the tour and show lunch making (left) and breakfast stations.

Sandwich making is crazy and everyone gets stressed that there won't be enough food, even though there will be. I got around it because I made PB&J sandwiches which aren't a "thing" in New Zealand or Australia, so I was able to just go to the breakfast area, take some bread meant for toast, and use the peanut butter and jam available for toast - bypassing the general chaos of the sandwich stations.

Today was 11.43 miles and about 1500 foot elevation gain. It was a pretty straight shot along the bank of the Clinton River. The views were beautiful and the weather held until just after we got to the lodge when the rain came down.

The most interesting thing was the birds. We heard a kaka (a type of parrot), but saw a New Zealand pigeon which is very pretty.

We were also able to play with the Tomtits that would come and peck at our boots for food. They also came to say hello to buni.

The fungus was also very beautiful

and there were some lovely mosses

We also saw a teal duck which is rather endangered. I thought it was a rock....

Remember Quinton McKinnon (the missing guy who had the cross we saw earlier?). He had a hut at the 2 mile point...

We were challenged to find the "missing mile marker" which was mile marker number 3...

We had an opportunity for a quick side walk through a wetland that had some pretty wetland plants like broom moss and sundew.

Lunch was at a lodge and there were warm drinks provided and we didn’t need to carry our own cups! This lodge was located near some nice waterfalls. We saw similar ones throughout the day.

After lunch we had the opportunity to see a hidden lake with a waterfall which is where we thought we had lunch and a lovely rest in 2017. Here are some examples, but the waterfall was very disappointing. Then we thought it might have been at Prairie Lake, but also the falls were very small. We did see some waterfalls on the other side of the valley which were a bit more interesting, but just a lot less water than our first trip.

The weather had been holding, but we saw the storms coming and we had one more uphill to come. There was no bus, so we didn't wait for one.

We started moving much faster and got to the scrambling area which is also the area where the bridge was washed out last trip.

Chris reminded me I got my boots totally soaked last time. This time there was no water in the river and the bridge was there, but we scrambled up to the bridge, walked across, walked down and about 4 minutes over to the lodge. As soon as we entered the door, the rain started.

We had scones as a snack and had a rest.

Dinner was chicken and some vegetables (no photos)- not much starch (a good thing).

No Kia birds:(. Last trip here the Kias would come and play. There were around 5-7 of them and they were wonderful to see. This was probably the biggest disappointment of the trip. Here is a photo from our last trip at this lodge.

March 15 Pampolona to Quinton Lodge. About 9 miles and about 2500 foot elevation gain.

You can see (barely) our lunch stop at the top of the pass in this photo

My watch told me my effort was “all out” which I guess that’s harder than “hard”. An early day - leaving at 7:30 and the sun was barely up.

We were full of energy and moved towards the end of the front group which is right where we wanted to be. The views were hampered by clouds, but it was warmer because of the overcast.

What we didn’t realize until later was how far we went 9 years ago before the helicopter lift. We weren’t airlifted until we got to “Lake Beautiful” which felt like quite a long way. Left photo is where we caught the helicopter and right is the helicopter.

This is where the guides forced us to take a 15 minute break (cold not good for warm muscles…). Finally we got walking again and started the uphill which was the 17 switchbacks. The effort was hard, but was similar to other hikes and was doable just going my own speed. What made it miserable was the rain. Thankfully I put my raincoat on at the stop, so was prepared.

I counted only about 15 switchbacks, so it was a welcome surprise when we got to the top and the monument. Here is this time vs. last time. Last time we were bundled up against the cold (left), this time against the rain (and cold).

We were offered a quick hot drink and then continued on (up) another 3/4 mile until we got to the hut for lunch. It was along this part of the trail that we reached the top of the pass where there was no view vs the view from last time (right).

We did see where the helicopter landed 9 years ago and I remembered walking to the lunch hut through 2 feet of snow. It was much easier walking without the snow. That said it was cold (about 2 degrees C) and we were wet - not a good combination.

The lunch hut (no photo) was minimal and at least we could change out of wet clothes and be out of the wind and have a warm drink. My waterproof socks were a waste of money and my feet were soaked and cold. My water repellant slacks were soaked. I decided not to change socks or trousers and it turned out to be the right decision, but I wasn’t sure at the start of the next phase of the trail. I was shivering at the start, but warmed up pretty quickly.

On the way down we saw and heard a Kia, but it was far away. So disappointing not to see more.

The trip down was A LOT easier than I remembered - to the point where we wondered if they moved/improved the trail over the last 9 years. These walkways and huge waterfalls were about half way down.

These are beautiful flowers seen along the way, probably Snow Gentian or Mountain Ribbonwood.

These photos really don't show how beautiful things were.

more photos

Quinton Lodge was a lodge I remembered as where someone took Chris’ boots by mistake.

a fantail greeted us.

Dinner was beef or breaded fish. The beef was cold by the time it got to me, so I didn’t eat much of it. This was the one really disappointing meal of the trip.

Early lights out as tomorrow is another early, and long, day.

3/16 Quinton Lodge to Mitre Point Lodge - our last hiking day.

Today was about 15 miles. I don’t have the exact details or map because my Apple Watch crapped out 30 minutes before the end and everything was lost. I am now considering another option as this is very frustrating.

We were up at 5:45 again to make lunches, breakfast etc to be out of the lodge between 7:30 and 7;45 which was rather ridiculous since we couldn’t catch any boat until 3pm, but I’ll get to that. We left at exactly 7:45 and the sun was barely awake. We almost got yelled at for being late leaving the lodge.

It was a beautiful day of walking, but a little long and very rainy. It was generally undulating, rocky track. The views weren’t outstanding because of the rain, but were good enough to see so many waterfalls.

It’s a 7 hour hike and if you arrive before 3pm you have to wait at “sandfly point”until 3pm got boat across the sound. sandflies are not enjoyable and are small biting midges. Supposedly you can avoid the itching if you use your saliva when it starts to itch, but I’ve never been successful with that. I have so many bites on my hands and feet (see above photo), it’s not funny, so we left last with the thought that we didn’t want to wait around for the boat.

We had an early lunch at the “boat house” - this boat house was built to ferry people across Ada Lake. We were the last to leave because there was only 4 hours left of walking at we would be done in about 3.

I did go inside Bell Rock. Yeah, it was ok and would have been great in a storm. There was a related

McKay Falls were right next to Bell Rock and were truly beautiful. Of course the photos don't really represent it.

There were some friendly fantail birds (no photos) - legend has it if they come to you, they represent the spirit of a dead relative.

There was a stretch that was blasted in 1893 by miners to make the track. You can see the "graffiti" by the miners which tells the year and their names. Here is an example fro 2017 (left) and today.

There were some truly amazing tree ferns that must have been extremely old.

There were some fabulous mossy rain forests to walk through. There was one more open rest area that was full of sandflies, so we didn't stay long before continuing to giant scape falls (center photo)

We walked by Lake Ada (mom's name) where last time we visited was just after her death.

All the loveliness went on about 4 miles too long and we finally arrived at Sandfly Point which was the end of our walk. We only had to wait 10 minutes for the boat and we were allowed inside the lodge area, so thankfully away from most of the sandflies.

Our boat took us across Milford Sound to the Mitre Lodge which is our accommodation for our last night.

We lucked out and got the only suite.

We were able to get a load of laundry in as well.

We celebrated with champagne.

Dinner was the vegetarian option for me after a terrible experience with last night’s beef.

Here's the view at night - not. much to see except for some navigation lights....

3/17 - Return to Queenstown.

Early morning shots from our room

The day started with a really frenetic lunch making session where there was a lot of stress to be the first to have a sandwich made, packaged and on a bus seat to reserve your place for the 4 hour ride back to Queenstown. In addition, there was a rush to get breakfast and reserve your seats together at a table to eat together.

Further, this morning we found out officially that one of our group got the novo-virus which manifested at Pampolona Lodge. This person did not continue and had to walk back out. They probably could have taken a helicopter back, but might have had to pay for it since it was communicated that the trail wasn't "safe" and other cases had been identified/we were warned. Anyway, no one else seemed to have symptoms, so that was a good thing.

From the hotel back to the wharf was about 10 minutes by bus where we waited for our 90 minute boat tour of Milford Sound. While waiting for the bus I got the only really good look at a kia on this trip as it flew over me. It made me feel a bit better, but I was still disappointed not to see more of them. The guide got everyone out on the dock to wait for the boat. The sandflies were very happy with this and I was not, so I went back inside the terminal building to wait without sandflies. How stupid for the guide to do this - we could have all waited inside.

Given all the rain, the waterfalls were lovely. We saw some dolphins (no photos) and some seals. It was just a beautiful way to spend a morning.

No big issues on the bus ride back. One big thing was the construction of the Homer Tunnel through the mountain. It is still one way and we had to wait for about 6 minutes to get through. It's been a long time since I've seen so many bugs on a windshield....