The Milford Track, Queenstown & Mount Cook

So we were in Queenstown, which is like Boulder, or Chamonix, or any mountain town catering to adventure sport enthusiasts... so I liked it a lot. It was hard to just spend a few hours handling errands since around every corner there's an advertisement for a bouldering competition, or bungee jumping, or my new personal favorite (which I'm pushing to find the time to do) Heli-Mountain Biking... awesome. I left off when I was awaiting my bus to Te Anau Downs, where we boarded a boat that took us through Lake Te Anau for just over an hour into Fjordland Nat'l Park, where we disembarked onto the southern terminus of the Milford Track, dubbed the "Finest Walk in the World" - this was our destination and had been since I'd seen it on the Travel Channel a year prior, and Dera and I had booked it last fall.

A few things to note:

1) I remember why I left Pennsylvania, rain dampens things.

2) I know why California has been in a drought forever, see number one.

3) Although it does rain here it hasn't modified my mood, I've missed weather, and I'll be back in Cali soon enough ;)

4) I've always been prone to bug bites, usually mosquito's, in New Zealand the rain breeds "Sand Flies" & because of the tremendous amount of the wet stuff I guess there's quite a few of them.

5) Because of number four, I picked up a lotion called "Bushmaster" at the local pharmacy, it's 80% DDT and I was warned that it may eat my clothes, a layer of skin and/or give me cancer - whatever, I'm getting it one way or another.

So we began our trek, it was raining but I had prepared by waterproofing my jacket & boots while still in San Diego, it wasn't cold and the rain actually scares the sand flies away while it's coming down. Our first day was an easy one, a short three mile hike to the Clinton Hut.

Now I need to explain some things: there are no tents on the Milford Track, the Department of Conservation has built camps at various points along the way for the independent hikers (aka Dera & I) - There's only two ways to hike the finest walk in the world, Guided or Independently. Guided means you stay in different, better huts. They provide a nice bed, hot shower and meals prepared for you along the way - basically for old people, all these hikers are required to do is carry their clothes and cameras, everything else is handled by the guide. If your an Independent Hiker you have to carry your own food & cook set, you don't have a guide... but the DOC does provide mattresses in dorm style huts, there's a public building with running water, propane cookers for preparing your food & a wood stove to dry your clothes or heat up. (There's also a hut ranger to assist and explain whenever necessary, the caretakers of the huts.) So I think I've explained that sufficiently, in my mind the independent style was high class from what I'm used to, but this is how the NZ Gov't has diminished our impact on their nature. I'll take it, no complaints here, I enjoyed not having to carry a tent, stove, fuel, sleeping pad or water purifier. Anyway we made it to the Clinton Hut no problem, had some dinner and waited for it to get dark (sometime after 8:30pm) before crawling into bed and passing out to the sound of rain. We had a long day of travel exclusive of the hiking that day so I slept hard.

The next day we awoke to snow capping all of the nearby peaks, and clear skies, it was time to hike 10 1/4 miles to our next stop. It wasn't long before we realized that the previous days rain had created an incredible amount of waterfalls along the valley we were walking, and it was amazing. This was a real rain forest and the downpours had brought it alive, I didn't even notice the mild climbing or the uneven trail, just tried to keep from tripping over something since most of the time my eyes were focused on the peaks, valley walls or the surrounding jungle. On we tramped (my new word, I'm not sure if it's Eastern Europe or New Zealander natives that refer to hiking in that fashion but whatever, it's just another way to confuse non-English speakers who are learning the language ;) to our eventual lunch stop at Hidden Lake. Rockfall had damned up this waterfall before it joins with the river making a crystal clear reservoir reminiscent an Ansel Adams portrait. That was about half way, we continued on through the forest along the Clinton River and eventually made it to Mintaro Lake, the source of the river and the location of that nights accommodations, the Mintaro Hut.
I was the first to get there, which was good because that gave me choice of which bunks Dera & I would be in that evening. I went for the top floor, two beds that were not in the bunk style at the end of the room. This minimizes the amount of traffic back and forth near us during the night, and not having to climb a ladder for a middle of the night pee break is always advantageous. So we chilled for a bit and made some noodles, afterwards we went for a walk around the lake and part way up the next days grade to the pass which would be the high point of our hike, overall a very pleasant evening. We made Campers Meals, (Pad Thai) some tea for dinner and eventually crawled into our beds for another restful evening, it had been a big day since on top of the normal hike we had scouted the trail for the next day.

Dera woke me up since he was ready to go early, I told him to go on since I felt the 1500 feet of vertical to the gap was something I could catch up with him on. At that point I realized why he was so motivated, it was raining, great, so I packed my bag and made sure everything was in plastic bags just in case my waterproof bag leaked. I discovered later that all my precautions meant nothing, but I'll get to that in a bit. About 15 minutes after Dera departed I was on the trail, I overtook him within a half an hour and continued up the switchbacks. This jungle was thick, and the trail was mostly a creek, about an hour in I was above the treeline and looked back at a valley I hadn't seen yet to the most waterfalls I'll ever witness in one place. Although this picture is cloudy you can get the point, I counted 36 dropping into the Mintaro Lake Valley but I'm sure there was more, and even though it was raining I was blown away by how much water was coming down.

Once I crested the Mackinnon Pass (elevation, 3500 feet) the wind started, and this is when the photos just weren't happening for fear I might soak Dera's wonderful Nikon he'd allowed me to use. Gale forces blew the rain sideways into every part of me and my gear, the trail and ground surrounding it was a river so my shoes were soaked through, my socks were sopping and my boxers were stuck to me since they'd gotten wet through my supposed waterproof jacket & pants. Awesome, at least it wasn't too cold although I was looking at snow just a few hundred feet above me. I trekked on to the Pass Hut, another fancy feature of the DOC, giving us a place to take shelter and providing propane if we want to have some hot food. It was here I made a mistake, when on trips such as this I pride myself on making good decisions but since I had several miles of steep downhill in front of me and wet socks I decided to change into dry ones, usually wet socks mean blisters but in this case my socks were going to be wet regardless so now I've ended up with two pairs of wet socks, it's a good thing I had a third pair to change into when I eventually made it to that nights hut. OK, back to the Pass Hut, I was the first there (of 40 people on the trail with us each day) so I aired my wet gear out, listened to the wind and chatted with the occasional hiker while I waited for Dera. When he showed up (I guess he was in the other half of the hut with the guided hikers having cocoa or some shit) we made our way off the pass back onto the trail and into even more intense weather. Five minutes in we were getting pelted in the face by hail, 15 minutes in we were fording waterfalls crossing the trail, and 25 minutes in we were delirious enjoying every minute of this crazy intense obnoxious & stunning downpour. (The hail only lasted a few minutes) We made sure each other were making it through the hard parts and once off the exposed part of the mountain and into the valley I left Dera behind since I was cold at that point and needed to move faster to warm up.

I made it to the Public Shelter, a spot people drop their packs for a side trip to Sutherland Falls, the highest in New Zealand and 5th highest in the world. After about 20 minutes there the weather cleared, the sun came out and I decided to make my way up to the falls. They were incredible! The most intense falls I've ever stood next too, within 50 yards your getting soaked by the spray from all that water hitting the bottom and misting back out, your supposed to be able to walk behind them but about 10 yards out I was blinded by the amount of water hitting me and knew it would be just stupid to continue...

so back down I came, picked up my pack and an hour further down the trail I made it to the Dumpling Hut where Dera was waiting and had already gotten me a great spot to sleep.

Priority Numero Uno: Dry my shit, I had so much stuff hanging over the wood stove I made a list to keep track so I could rotate everything, and I wasn't the only one. Everyone had gotten thoroughly drenched that day, normally waterproof gear soaked through but I've never seen such weathered people so happy and chatty, it was almost surreal, the entire group was getting along so well after bonding for three nights together. We made a few friends, Jacek from Poland & a couple, Marco & Barbara from Slovenia, Eastern Europe was definitely present as were many Aussies and Kiwis. Dera made the comment that I was the only one without an accent, although a gentlemen from Auckland immediately thought I was from LA. (I corrected him of course, but two hours off wasn't too shabby, I guess my SoCal accent is apparent.) This picture is from the hut's deck looking across the valley once the weather cleared for sunset (of course) - that night was mostly spent working to dry my stuff and eating since I hadn't really gotten a chance all day, once in bed my nights sleep was not so good since a chainsaw was going off a few bunks over. (I'm not that light of a sleeper, but this guy's snoring was so loud I thought he might choke!)

The next morning we rose before the sun and it was not raining, this was the longest hiking day, eleven and a half miles but mostly flat. The previous days downpours made for a fantastic walk along the river and of course more waterfalls. It went fast and we made it to the end, 33 and a half miles total, Sandfly Point, an hour or so prior to our ferry's departure. This picture is of us next to the terminus sign where many hikers had left their broken boots. (I should have left mine) It was a fantastic experience that I wouldn't trade for anything, clear skies on the summit would have been nice but you feel a certain sense of accomplishment after making it through something like that. After a short ferry ride across the Milford Sound (pictured to the right) and a long bus ride we made it back to Queenstown, I would be 34 at midnight so even though I was tired I was craving a good meal and a cold beer, or five, it was a good night but I made it to bed at a decent hour since we had some traveling to do the next day.

The next morning we did a little laundry, picked up our rental car and took some pictures while strolling around Queenstown browsing for souvenirs before departing for Mount Cook, that nights destination. Dera had experience driving on the left side of the road so I had no problem leaving that up to him, although I could tell it takes a little getting used to. We spent the day driving through the New Zealand countryside, pulling over once and a while to take pictures or just take in the sights. The first stop was Lake Pukaki, which had a great view of Mount Cook,except it was covered over with clouds. It was a mineral filled lake and had a greenish hue. After that, since it was just a few kilometers away we went to Lake Tekapo, which had the same color and was surrounded by an evergreen forest, we just snapped a few shots and made our way back to Mount Cook. When going back past Pukaki the clouds had lifted so we took some great pics of the lake and the mountain, then continued onto our Hostel in the village of Mount Cook, a YHA.

We checked in and went directly to the Hermitage, the oldest hotel in that area, for some local wine and a nice dinner with a panoramic view of the Aoraki Valley. I had venison cutlets for an appetizer and lamb chops for the entree, it was great, and I was feeling fine. When we walked outside the sun was setting on the summit of Mount Cook creating a spectacular glow which can't be described, only shown. That night I made it out to a local bar, had a few beers and made it another early night since the next morning we had plans to hike deeper into the Valley.

That morning we made our way up the Hooker Valley trail to Hooker Lake, I had never been up close to a glacier so I left Dera and hiked what started out looking like a close walk. It wasn't, it ended up being the most treacherous hike I've done for a long time, the sun was out causing the glacial ice to break apart so every five seconds a booming sound would fill the valley followed by splashing from the ice and rock falling into the lake. I started to get freaked out when the scree field above me started sliding once and a while, but I made it to the glacier safe and sound and found another dude, Grant from the UK over there and in the same boat. He had walked up the valley and found no safer way out. Not quite sure how safe the walk back would be we both chilled for a bit, I took some close-ups of the inside of this glacier and then decided to walk back the way we had come. It was fine, we encounted a few mountaineer women who were familiar with this route which made it much more relaxing. Safely back on shore we made our way to the parking lot where I left Grant and met poor Dera who had been waiting for me, we went to the Old Mountaineer's Cafe, known for it's association with Sir Edmund Hillary, (the first person to ascend Everest, he & his party trained on Mount Cook prior to their Himalaya ascent) for some dinner and came back to the Hostel. He took off back to watch the sunset and I'm here writing this blog. Tomorrow we leave to explore the southern part of this island and hopefully see some Penguins!

I'll let you know, it's been a great trip so far, definitely an adventure, who knows what'll happen next.