Milford Track

The Milford Track has been called one of the best walks in the world (or at least in New Zealand) so we had to include it in our trip.  We took a "guided walk" where we only needed to carry our clothes (actually Calvin carried all of our gear) and stayed in very nice lodges and ate gourmet meals.Hiking is not my favorite thing to do, but this was a pretty cushy way to hike.  We started in Queenstown, took a bus to Te Anau and then took a boat to the start of our hike at the north end of Lake Te Anau. 

There were about fifty people in our group, so we all wore name tags to help the guides recognize us.From the boat dock we had a one mile walk to our first night's lodge. 

After we had dropped of our gear we took a nature walk and managed to spot the elusive New Zealand bear.

Our second day involved a little more walking.  We walked ten miles through mostly flat and beautiful terrain.

We crossed a lot of bridges, but didn't have any rain or even need to get our feet wet.

We took a short side trip through a wetlands are where we saw a pretty little red plant called a Sundew that gets protein from insects it traps.

At lunch time we saw one of the few native flightless birds that have managed to survive, a weka, that cleans up the lunch area after we leave.

Day three was the day I was dreading.  It was 4 miles up hill and 5 miles down. We got up early add saw some kea, green parrots that like to eat hiking shoes. The picture isn't really clear but there were hiking shoes nailed to a post at the lodge that the kea like to tear apart.  Apparently they don't really eat the shoes, but I'm sure I saw swallowing going on.

Calvin is loving the hike

but I'm a little less enthusiastic about the uphill.

As we neared the top of the pass we started on a series of switchbacks. Here I am at a switchback hoping that a helicopter will come and pluck me off the mountain.

We did finally make it to the top of the switchbacks and arrived at the McKinnon Memorial.  In honor of the man who was crazy enough to pioneer this route.

While I was trying to catch my breath Calvin took pictures from the top.  If you look closely in this picture you can see the roof of our next hut.

Sadly the MacKinnon Memorial was not the top if the hill.  We still and another twenty minutes up to the top.

We ate lunch and then started downhill.  I did warn Calvin that I am just as slow going downhill as I am going up hill. It was a long day. We did pass a rather spectacular waterfall

and toward the bottom there were some stairs that made the going a little easier, but that is a day I never plan to repeat.

Day 4 was mostly flat through some beautiful scenery.

We stopped at this waterfall for lunch and I took a foot soak

By the end of the day we had walked thirteen and a half miles to arrive at Sandfly Bay where we took a boat to our last lodge on Milford sound which had a pretty nice view.