Hiking New Zealand's Milford Track
Described by Blanche Baughan as “The Finest Walk in the World"
The Milford Track in New Zealand has a reputation as one of the world's greatest track walks. It is an easy four day hike with spectacular views.
The Milford Track in New Zealand is on the west coast of New Zealand’s South Island. It follows an old Maori trading route over mountains connecting the inland to Milford Sound on the coast. It is about 55 kilometres walked over four days, starting near the town of Te Anau.
The Milford Track was described by poet Blanche Baughan in 1908 as “the finest walk in the world.” A guidebook states: “few people walk the Milford Track are not moved by the experience.” This reputation makes for a great hiking experience.
Guided Walk or Independent Walk
There are two ways to hike the Milford Track. On a Guided Walk you carry clothes and sleeping bag, and stay in well-appointed lodges with a guide doing the cooking. The rough option is the Independent Walk staying in Department of Conservation (DOC) huts. Each permits only three nights on the track. You walk in one direction and can’t stay two nights in one hut, as the next group want your bed.
The Independent Walk is easy. The huts have gas stoves, running water, flushing toilets, bunks with mattresses, and an on-site warden who advises on the next day’s track conditions. You carry food, sleeping bag and personal items. It’s easy to deal with rain during the day knowing you have a warm, dry hut and a bed waiting. And you will have rain, as someone once said that to trek the Milford you have to “be prepared to walk in the rain and love it!”
The Milford Experience
The trip starts with a boat ride to the beginning of the track. You are dropped off with the other walkers in the wilds of New Zealand’s Fiordland. The first night’s hut is four kilometres away. The second day is a 17 kilometre wander up the Clinton Valley beside clear streams with the occasional rainbow trout.
Day three is a 14 kilometre climb to the McKinnon Pass and here the weather is unpredictable. Some make the pilgrimage to this spot and can only see their feet through thick clouds. If you’re lucky, you will have a spectacular mountain vista: towering snow-capped peaks with valleys over one kilometre straight down.
On top of the pass the DOC have installed a hut for walker’s use. The wind can be so strong on the pass that at least two huts have been blown away. Sometimes walkers need to hold tufts of grass beside the track to keep from being blown off their feet.
From McKinnon Pass the track winds into the valley on the other side, dropping one kilometre over three kilometres distance. A place for trekking poles. Grinding knees and screaming thighs are silenced by the rewarding sights as you descend with the mountains rising beside you.
In the valley, a short sidetrack leads to the base of Sutherland Falls. This waterfall drops over one kilometre and is such a huge volume it roars like a jet engine as you approach. At the base, it is a furious maelstrom with wild winds generated by the sheer amount of water crashing down.
A Spectacular End of the Track
The final day is an 18 kilometre stroll along the track to Sandfly Point. And right to the end the Milford Track doesn’t disappoint, as a short boat-trip is needed on the famous Milford Sound. As the boat emerges onto the Sound, to one side is Mitre Peak, the most photographed scene in New Zealand, and on the other the white gash of Bowen Falls cutting through the green of the sound. A magnificent end to the “finest walk in the world.”
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