Milford Trek

Milford Trek

"…The Milford Track (53.5 Kilometers) is in the heart of spectacular Fiordland National Park, part of South west New Zealand world Heritage Area.
The Track starts at the head of lake Te Anau and finished and Milford Sound."

As you all already knows, we went on this trek by pure luck. However, this trek started a day before, when we tried to figure out what we should put in our bag. For all of you who traveled in South America or Nepal, including us, when you travel in New Zealand there is no "sucker" who will carry your bags. So we thought of every gram we put in our bags.
Anyhow, it felt like I'm carrying all of my original 20 kilos I took when I left Israel.

At the first day, we drove ourselves to the pick up point of the track – Te Anau Down. From there we had a 1.5 hour cruise on a Catamaran to the beginning of the track.
From that point we started to count the 53.5 Kilometers we had to accomplished in 4 days.

I must mention that the track can be done in 3 days, but since this is one of the "great walks" of New Zealand, and since the Milford is the most popular one, so they (the DOC – Department of Conservation, like KaKaL in Israel) decided that you must do it in 4 days, and make more money for each night you sleep in one of their Huts (40$nz each).

The first day was the most ridiculous in his kilometric (5 km), but it gave me a good idea how it feels to carry a 10 kilos bag and walking with it.

We got to the hut after 1 hour and 15 minutes (we were the first ones in the hut!!!), it was only about 14:00, and since the days in New Zealand are very long (it gets dark only at 22:00), we had quite a lot of time to spend in the hut. Quickly enough, we found more Israeli people on the track (you can find them everywhere, especially in Te Anau). They were a nice French couple (Michel and Sandra) that lived in Israel. Later on, more people arrived on the late boat so another young Israeli couple arrived (Liran and Lina).

At each hut there is a ranger that is in charge of the hut. Those ranger are quite a unique persons (think of someone that needs to stay all by himself in the middle of nowhere and speak only once a day for about 1/2 an hour, telling the same things to different people). You can't imagine how much they speak and most of what they say you can't understand since the Kiwi's English in horrible. They have all kind of special words that we don’t know, like, do you know what is a billy?, No?, so did we at the time, well, it's a pot to boil water like "FINGAN", which looks like a small bucket. And the worst thing is that they pronounce the 'e' and 'i' different than what the American English do. So believe me, it's really hard to understand them. However, the most annoying thing is that they are trying to be funny just when you are the most tiered and just want to be left alone.

Since the first day was very short, the ranger at the Clinton Hut (each hut has a name) took us on a nature walk at about 17:00. I couldn't stand him for more then 15 minutes ,so I just left. Izick stayed until the end and he seems to like it.
When izick came back, we made a dinner like every other night at the huts. Every day we had the same thing: pasta with tomatoes sauce (after 3 nights, izick asked if we can have a break from pasta for the next week). I must say, it's very convenient to have a warm hut to sleep in (instead of tenting with sleeping bags) and also to have normal gas to cook your dinner on (for that reasons I can give extra points to New Zealand and the DOC).
Each dinner time we had a visit from the ranger, giving us some pep talk about the weather, the walk we are about to have the next day, rules that we need to obey while we stay at the hut, and also about the nature (at this point he lost me, but izick, on the other hand, seems to be quit interested).

At the first day we had another encounter with the ranger. When it became dark, at about 22:00, he took us on a short walk near our hut to see some glowing worms. This was amazing. Unfortunately this is something we can't take a picture of, but I can just tell you that it looks like Christmas lights. Quite an amazing thing.

Second Day:
We woke up at 6:30 and were on our way at about 7:30 (same routine every day).
On the second day we walked for about 16.5 km (5 hours).
The route on the second day was quite flat and we walked in the forest (it called bush walk in new Zealand) passing some waterfalls and lakes.
However, after a 4 hours walk I just couldn't bare carrying my bag and it felt like carrying stones.
When we got to the hut, it seems that izick didn't had enough, so he went climbing with the young couple to the pass and returned (something that we were about to do the next day (3 hours walk!)). If you ask him why he did it, he will probably say, to see the view while it's clear and the weather is fine. (and he was right, since on the next 2 days we had lots of rain).

Third Day:
This day was the hardest of them all, since we had to climb for 2 hours 575 meter and then descend for 4 hours 1000 meter.
The climb was ok, since all I could think of was the way down (the ranger worn us, the day before that people usually think that if they finish the climb than the way down is a piece of cake, and they are not mentally ready for the descend).
At the pass, there were a place, right at the edge of the cliff, that you can look down and see our next stop, just a 12 seconds drop, as you can imagine, we didn't pick that way, even though it's looks a lot shorter.

It was frizzing cold at the top, the New Zealand's alpine weather. Luckily enough, we had a shelter to rest in and also a gas cooker to make some hot drink (I really needed it). After a 1/2 hour rest we left the shelter and started our way down. From here on it was all down hill like they say. It took us about 4 hours just to descend, and believe me it was hard, my knees were aching and it seems like it will never ends.
When we got to the ground level it still wasn't the end of it. From that point on, we had a choice to make, continue on to the Dumpling Hut or going on a side trip to Sutherland falls. As you may already guess, I went to the hut and izick went to see the falls.

Izick : the falls was quite amazing. It's 580 meter tall, falling in 3 cascades, with a large volumes of water. The falls are new Zealand highest falls and the sixth highest falls in the world. The only problem was that the day was very very wet with lots and lots of rain, so I was socking wet and very cold. On top of that, my camera got wet and I had to protect it inside the coat the whole time and just take it out briefly for taking pictures. The results was that the only pictures I got from the falls weren't very good. (for those of you who know the fumaca falls in lencios, brazil, this falls were much more impressive and with far more water in them…).

Navit: At total it took me 7 hours to finished those 14 km.
I forgot to add that this walk was all in the rain and it didn't stopped raining until the next day at about 11:00, so also the last day was wet (lucky us…)

Last day:
This last day was much easier for me after I had a 3 day practice in carrying my bag and walking at the same time. In addition, the route was quite flat, but still I had lots of pain in my feet and legs (I just got used to it).
At the last day we saw a lot of new fresh falls that were created due to the heavy rain. It was quite amazing. In addition, we saw some amazing tree avalanche. Sometimes when a tree from the top of the mountain collapse it can take down with him all the trees up to the last one beneath him. When you see that kind of avalanche (after it happened, I can't even think how it's like when it really happens) you think that some kind of a disaster happened at that area.
There was a point at the last day that I walked by myself, and at that point there was a sign saying "Don't stop, avalanche warning", anyone who knows me and how scarred I am, probably guessed that I just run the whole way, and this is what I did. Izick was quit amused when he heard about it.
At the last 1/2 hour of the trek, I was alone. Since Izick already passed me, the walkie talkie that we bought in Hong King come in quite handy. Just as izick reached the end of the route, he talked with me on the walkie talkie and then he surprised me, by coming back and helping me with the bag, like a true gentleman.
When I got to the end on the trek, the Sandfly point, I had such a good feeling that I passed it and it was all over.

Izick: I was very proud of Navit for finishing that track without any special problems. Even though that in times, the track was really hard on her, she was brave enough to keep on going and never give up until the end. You must keep in mind that this track was navit first track, in which she had to carry her own bag all the way through the track (in south America, we had someone who carry our bags (either a donkey or a porter) on the tracks).
For myself, it quite a unique experience, being the first track in new Zealand. New Zealand nature life is very beautiful with lots of green forest, lakes, river, water falls and snowy mountains. I also find the huts system very good and comfortable, which make your life a lot easier and safer. The draw point of the system is that the huts are very expensive, even in new Zealand terms.
Overall, I find that new Zealand is a paradise for those seeking to walk they way across the country. Everything is well organized, safe and efficient. This is also the reason why the tracks are quite crowded and you sometimes might think you walking in a group. You certainly don't get the feeling of remoteness you get when you are doing a track in south America.
A part from that, I am not sure that we are the kind of people that will spend all of their time in new Zealand trekking, but we will sure try and do some of the most interesting ones!
Anyhow, it's real refreshing to walk in the nature for a couple of days, instead of sitting in the office all day and download movies all night.