Soaking Up The Views Of The Milford Track Part 1

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Geo: -44.6698, 167.928

It's true that the wild and wet conditions in the Fiordland National Park are what created this picturesque, secluded and wild part of New Zealand. So having four days of constant rain on the day we started the trek and after 5 weeks of hardly any rain before was a huge mix of bad luck and bad timing.
They do say that it is a must to walk the Milford Track in rain and you're missing out if you don't, but we hardly got a break and it dampened the spirits a little bit. Pun intended!
The Milford track is regarded as the finest walk in the world, and with limited places of 40 unguided walkers allowed on the track per day, bookings are required. Anna and I made the booking about 7 months prior to the start of the trek so it was hard to check the weather forecast before hand.
It was a very early Christmas present from me to Anna so it was a long time for us to wait, but I can say now it was definitely worth the wait.

We had all our buses sorted out and arrived into Te Anau to pick the tickets up. We waited for a few hours in the information center before hopping on the bus to Te Anau downs, followed promptly by the ferry ride to the start of the trek.
The day had already started gloomy, but the effects of a grim background of dark grey cloud weaving through rain forest mountains actually made the scenery look pretty cool as if we were entering an untouched and unseen world. The anticipation and surroundings were already overwhelming.
Among the crowd on the boat were the guided walkers who stay at accommodation at least an hour behind the huts of the unguided. So we had the privilege of starting from the boat first.
We had a quick boot wash in a tub to stop the spread of Didymo, aka Rock snot, which until 8 years ago never existed in New Zealand water ways and now occupies 40% of South Island rivers and lakes.

I was amazed straight away by the green surrounds, the moss covered trees, the already many different types of plants and the sounds of birds and silence. Within five minutes there was a small fantail flying around us curiously and almost perching on Anna's backpack. The rain had appeared but we were somewhat sheltered by the trees and it didn't stop until we got to Clinton Hut after an hour and a half. The condition of the path was very easy and flat which shows the care that is given to establishing a safe and memorable walk.
The group that hopped on the morning boat were already well established so the remainder of us filled the rooms.
Shortly after settling in we participated in an ranger walk with our ranger for the night Peter, a skinny, oldish guy with a beard, daggy shorts pulled up high and long socks. In his soft voice he took us around the hut and explained plants and surroundings which was very informative, funny and interesting until our hunger got the best of us and we bailed just before it ended to cook up some pasta.
Gas and water is about the only thing provided, so we had our own food and cutlery for the whole trek, what we brought in we also had to take out, including rubbish.
By 8pm we had a further hut talk from Peter where he did safety procedures and also some more informative talks, adding humor in to his talks which made it very entertaining.

Day two started with the sound of rain, although we had already known the forecast which is written on a white board every morning. The days walk took around 6 hours through more amazing rain forest but it continued to rain non stop for the better part of the day. We were one of the first to leave and the good thing is about the trek is most of the time you are walking by yourselves as people leave at different times of the morning. We thought it was better to leave earlier.
The annoying thing about it raining all day is that eventually your shoes and anything that is not waterproof including bags are going to get soaked and you spend a majority of the time walking with wet socks and shoes.
Taking photos is also annoying as raindrops get all over the camera lens making it fuzzy and hard to clean. I often didn't even feel like taking photos in such conditions. Also the darkness in the rain forest meant that taking proper pictures became fuzzy so I lost the amazing green colour when using the automatic setting. My camera bag got completely soaked everyday.
The rain also made us want to just finish the days trip as quick as we could instead of enjoying every moment. Also wearing the jacket hood blocked the peripheral vision meaning missing out on many sights from trying to keep your head down and out of the rain.
It is easy to remember all the bad moments though so I tried to remain positive and remember the incredible landscape and forest and even having the opportunity to experience such an incredible trek.

The first thing you do when you arrive at the hut from walking in the rain all day is to try and dry everything and hang them in every available spot. Unfortunately wet weather gear and shoes must stay outside so especially the shoes never got a chance to completely dry, so for future reference taking a newspaper to stuff inside the shoes after a days trek will help as well as putting clothes in to plastic bags to avoid them getting wet too.
As the days draw to a close, so does the weight from the food, and after a hearty pasta meal we dried some clothes nearby the fire while getting to know some of the people around us.
We had another ranger talk later in the evening with a younger and more solidly built ranger who again was funny and gave us a great history lesson.
Then it was time to collapse in to bed to think about the rain and even snow predicted for the following days.

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