Even if you don't read the article, click on the link (
visit link) to see the New York Times beautiful photo which accompanied this story which ran January 11, 2009:
"A Walk Through New Zealand’s Watery Wild
By ROBERT D. HERSHEY Jr.
Published: January 11, 2009
IN 1908, The Spectator magazine called the 33.5-mile Milford Track through Fiordland National Park in New Zealand “the finest walk in the world,” an honorific still credible to knowledgeable hikers — one fan was Sir Edmund Hillary — a full century later.
A The park, part of the Te Wahipounamu Unesco World Heritage Site, is of jaw-dropping beauty, a rare combination of rain forest, rushing rivers and glacially carved alpine heights that yields vistas that make you think you’ve stepped into a picture postcard. What’s more, novices as well as hardened trekkers can fully enjoy the delights of the Milford, which offers as much solitude as you could want and ambient water so pure you’re actually encouraged to drink whatever you can reach.
When I was there last February (the New Zealand summer) as part of a guided group of 50 travelers on a five-day trip that included three days of serious walking, the two words I heard uttered most often as we trekked through the wilderness were “awesome” and “incredible.”
The Milford Track, what Americans call a trail, is promoted as physically neither easy nor difficult, with only children under 10 excluded by guide-company policy and hikers over 70 asked just to check their fitness with their doctor. Perhaps it is best put this way: City folks unaccustomed to walking more than a few minutes at a time will likely find the going hard while experienced hikers will consider the Milford, at least in favorable weather, not particularly challenging.
But so much depends on the utter unpredictability of the weather — frequent rain and perhaps even snow during summer in the southwest corner of New Zealand’s South Island.
The number of hikers who can walk the full Milford Track in peak season is limited to 90 a day — 50 with the private guide company Ultimate Hikes New Zealand, which holds an exclusive franchise, and 40 who register as independent walkers with the New Zealand Department of Conservation.
Each sponsor has its own overnight accommodations, and everyone walks in the same direction, north from the head of Lake Te Anau to Sandfly Point on Milford Sound, the route dating from 1888 when two Scots, Quintin Mackinnon and Ernest Mitchell, first struggled up a half-dozen steep switchbacks and through the mountain pass now bearing Mackinnon’s name and his memorial topped with a cross.
Partly because boat transportation is required at both ends, by far the most practical way for travelers to walk the Milford is to sign up with Ultimate Hikes, which sends groups out every day of the six-month season from its headquarters in Queenstown.
It supplies four guides, the considerable bus and boat transportation needed, all meals and modern overnight accommodations in lodges with flush toilets, hair dryers and rooms for fast-drying of clothes for an inclusive fee. Prices are highest in December through March, a bit less in November and April.
For independents, who carry all their own food and bedding as well as clothing, the peak season is from late October to late April, but they may walk without bookings — and in either direction — in the particularly hazardous off-peak and winter months.
Although being part of a group overseen by a company that operates with regimented efficiency may appear confining, there is no pressure to walk at anything other than your own comfortable pace, stopping whenever you want to gawk at the landscape, to take pictures or simply to rest.
“This is not a race; there is no prize for getting there first,” said Anneke, the woman who conducted the required briefing on the afternoon before my friend Anne and I started. “There can be up to two or three hours between the first person and the last person” on the trail, she added, implying that four dozen hikers had almost complete freedom to absorb things on their own terms, with companionship or without.
Indeed, one of my very few uneasy moments came after I stopped to chat with an American diplomat accompanying her fisherman husband on a day’s outing and no fellow hikers passed me in 15 minutes. When I resumed walking, it was in an open area where the trail was a bit ill-defined, and I thought I might have lost it. I had turned back about 100 yards when, to my relief, a couple of my party came along.
One of the guides always remains behind the slowest walker, so help will eventually arrive as long as you stay on the main trail. If you take one of the brief side excursions, you leave your pack on the trail so the “sweeper” guide won’t overtake you.
One thing a skittish tenderfoot need never worry about is dangerous wildlife; the Milford Track has no mammals or snakes, the chief threat being merely that the kea, a large and brazen New Zealand parrot, will make off with your lunch.
You do, however, have to contend with the weather, some of the wettest on earth. Our summer tramp was almost entirely sunny, but I and others found ourselves thinking how miserable we would be likely to feel in case of the bitter cold, soaking rain and flooding for which we had been insistently prepared in writing and oral briefing.
“Cold temperatures, snow, strong winds and heavy rain can occur at any time of the year,” with rain averaging every other day during the hiking season, according to the Department of Conservation.
A hardy minority of our party, however, expressed a certain disappointment that our group, designated No. 109 of the year, suffered no weather hardship, insisting that they would have welcomed at least one rainy day — the better to appreciate the lush rain forest through which we hiked. Mountain peaks may be less visible then, but waterfalls are said to be more spectacular and, by all accounts, much more numerous in wide cascades of silver threads.
In the heaviest downpours, the track becomes knee-deep or higher in floodwater, requiring detours to higher ground or even helicopter airlifts of a half dozen hikers at a time.
“If conditions are very wet, walkers are encouraged not to try and skirt around puddles as this damages the track verges,” advised our fold-up laminated navigation aid, contradicting what we were always told by our mothers. “It only delays the inevitable of feet getting wet as streams and surface flooding will have to be negotiated.”
You also must get used to a trail more laced with rocks and roots than I had expected, which made the descent of more than 3,500 feet from the Mackinnon Pass area on the middle-day afternoon quite difficult.
“Most people agree that this downhill section contains not only the hardest walking but also some of the most scenic views, from towering rock cliffs and moss-covered forest to alpine glacial fed streams and a cascading waterfall section,” the navigator stated. “On reaching the 19-mile peg you only have one mile to go (for the day), but save some energy for the last half mile, which is steep and your knees will be tired.”
Before this hike I had never used walking sticks, but Anne insisted on renting a pair for me, and they no doubt saved me from falling on this stretch. I staggered into Quintin Lodge, as did numerous fellow hikers, on wobbly legs. In Anne’s case, it was a sore knee.
But after this mountainous nine-mile test, nearly half the party summoned the energy with the aid of some tea, snacks and a short rest to take a bonus hour-and-a-half predinner trek for a close look at Sutherland Falls, among the world’s highest at 1,904 feet.
Although one hiker was evacuated from the track only a few days before because of a broken ankle, our group seemed remarkably free of spills. Afterward, Bill Davidson, general manager of Ultimate Hikes, explained that the rocks tend to settle, allowing good traction because the everyday tramping prevents the buildup of moss or slime.
Each hiking day followed a similar pattern, beginning with the electricity, which had been turned off at 10 p.m., being restored and acting as our automatic alarm clock.
Then it was making one’s own lunch sandwiches from a dining room spread, eating a hearty hot breakfast and on to the trail carrying modestly heavy packs containing a few clothes, foul weather gear, water bottle, toiletries, camera, personal items and the sandwiches.
By midafternoon, our typical group of Australians, Japanese, Britons, New Zealanders and five Americans was beginning to check into the next lodge or hut for the evening, in many cases enjoying a beer or some wine before a tasty dinner at which there was always a choice of two main courses.
Fresh smoked salmon rillettes with cucumber or penne pasta with beef Bolognese, each with a suggested wine pairing, headed the menu after the first-day’s 10-mile walk through the Clinton River valley.
A BRIEFING by the guides on the next day’s route added to the group’s growing sense of camaraderie and adventure as we enjoyed the remarkable creature comforts that had penetrated the roadless New Zealand wilderness.
The only irritating touch of modernity, according to some hikers, was the occasional buzz of a sightseeing plane or provisioning helicopter. Asked about this, Mr. Davidson approvingly quoted the reaction of one satisfied client.
“It’s a small price to pay,” she had commented, “for such a wonderful experience.”
IF YOU GO
Ultimate Hikes New Zealand (www.ultimatehikes.co.nz; 64-3-441-1138) runs five-day, four-night walks for 50 hikers a day on the Milford Track from November through April.
Prices in peak season (December through March) are 1,850 New Zealand dollars (about $1,070 at 1.73 New Zealand dollars to the U.S. dollar) for a shared four- to six-bunk room and 2,200 dollars a person for a double private room with bath. For November and April, the respective rates are 1,690 dollars and 2,040 dollars. Book at least a month or two ahead because of the strict limit on the number of hikers.
Ultimate Hikes runs other multiday and one-day hikes in the area, including a trek on the almost equally famous, more alpine Routeburn Track, which lasts three days and two nights.
Milford Track hikers are required to attend a pretrip briefing in Queenstown the day before they start. Packs, raincoats and pack liners can be borrowed free at that time. Poles can be rented for 25 dollars.
There is no walking on the final day. After a morning boat excursion on Milford Sound — a destination in itself — hikers are bused back to Queenstown, where most have stored luggage at a hotel.
Independent walkers who are 18 and older, who must arrange transportation and haul their gear, may walk the Milford for $26 (American) during the summer season and about $9 a night in winter, but only as a four-day, three-night plan. Bookings for the 40 daily slots can be made online with the Department of Conservation (www.doc.govt.nz). No reservations are needed for the off-season, when the track may be walked in either direction."