Walkers: John, Lothar (leader)
Photos: Lothar's:- Slide show or individual photos: ls6-19, ls6-21, ls6-22, ls6-23, ls6-24, ls6-25, ls7-01, ls7-02, ls7-03, ls7-04, ls7-05, ls7-06, ls7-07, ls7-08, ls7-09, ls7-10, ls7-11, ls7-12, ls7-13, ls7-14, ls7-15, ls7-16, ls7-17, ls7-18, ls7-19, ls7-20, ls7-21, ls7-22, ls7-23, ls7-24, ls7-25, ls8-01, ls8-02, ls8-03, ls8-04, ls8-05, ls8-06, ls8-07, ls8-08, ls8-11, ls8-12, ls8-13, ls8-14, ls8-15, ls8-16, ls8-17, ls8-18, ls8-19, ls8-20, ls8-21, ls8-23, ls8-25
Report:
Report 1:
I will describe the environment and the conditions for our four day walk from Glade Wharf on Lake Te Anau to Milford Sound on the south west coast of the south island. Lothar will cover our daily progress on the walk, in this newsletter if his e mail arrives in time from NZ, or in the next issue if not.
Milford Sound is a true fiord. A glacier formed it by cutting a deep, narrow valley, which was later filled by the sea when its level rose. The Milford track starts inland, following the valley of the Clinton River upstream. Then it goes up and over McKinnon Pass, a saddle 1154 m high (a bit under 4,000 ft), and finally down the valley of the Arthur River to the fiord. The view from McKinnon Pass included several valleys and mountains, the tallest of which was 2000 m (7,000 ft), with a glacier near its summit.
The original rock in “Fiordland” was like granite – very hard, and was then changed by heat and pressure to make it harder still. When rivers and glaciers cut valleys in this rock, because it was so hard, the sides did not fall in as they usually do. The result is very deep, flat bottomed valleys, like tall U’s in cross section. When we walked along the valley floors, the mountains towered above us, quite close on both sides, appearing like near vertical cliffs at times. As their top halves are snow covered in winter, they were just bare rock during our walk in March. The sun shines onto the valley floors in the middle of the day, but, in the early morning, late afternoon and evening, they are typically in shadow.
In other places, the alpine lakes and rivers are brown due to tannin from organic matter. On the Milford Track, the water that flows down from melting snow and the occasional glacier is so pure that it gives the Clinton River a turquoise colour. We could see the whitish gravel on the river bed right across to the far bank. We saw three trout under the surface.
The valley floors are covered in beech forest, similar to that in parts of Tasmania and the Otways. Except for McKinnon Pass, we walked in shade most of the time, which was a relief on the first couple of days as they were warm. There were remarkably few animals, except for birds, of which we saw plenty.
There was one very prominent insect – the sandfly of course. They are quite small with bodies about the size of pin heads, with wings a bit longer. If you let them sit on your skin, they give you a bite, which does not hurt much, but swells up into an itchy, red pimple in a day or two. They gather in large numbers around people. However, fortunately, they cease activity once it gets dark and they are sensitive to repellent. Lothar and I had five brands of repellent between us and they all worked, provided that we reapplied them frequently. Some people got bitten a bit but repellent saved most. Some people wore shorts and short sleeves but they had to use a lot more repellent.
Avalanches, of which there are two types, are common in Fiordland. When snow and ice build up until they are too heavy to be held, a landslide occurs, usually in winter. Some of the Milford Track goes up and over recent land slides. Also, the first hut is too close to the start of the track because the old one, further along, was carried away in a landslide in a section which is prone to them. The other type is a tree slide. There being little soil, the trees on the lower slopes put their roots into cracks in the rock; then the whole forest slides down when it grows to the point where its weight is too great for the roots to hold. This can happen at any time of year.
Light to moderate rain fell for the whole eight walking hours of one day, reaching a total of 40 mm, which isn’t much for an area with average annual rainfall of 7 metres (275 inches). As the rain fell on bare rock in the upper reaches, the water raced down the mid level gullies with great force. The views of the streams from the many swing bridges were quite impressive.
We compared notes on wet weather gear. One German man had a poncho covering, not only himself, but also a pocket to fit over his pack. My Drizabone trousers kept my ordinary trousers dry but my jacket leaked a bit under the arm pits towards the end of the day. The tops of my socks were dry and I didn’t walk through any puddles but the insides of my Gortex lined boots eventually got more than damp. So, the Gortex must have wept a bit. People wearing rain coats with shorts or quick-dry nylon trousers had the water run straight down their legs into their boots, suffering wet feet all day. Fortunately, my Snowgum pack liner kept its contents dry.
I find that people tend to “make” places. Our group of 40 walkers from many nations were a bit slow to “warm up”, but we eventually got to know each other and finished on a jovial note.
Fiordland is a fantastic place, even to the spectacular zig-zag road out of Milford Sound up to a tunnel. I certainly got my money’s worth.
John
Report 2:
John arrived at his Te Anau hotel at about 9pm on 10/3/02 and Chris & I were waiting for him. Within 10 minutes we were all in the pub next door recalling our adventures in getting there, and eating, drinking and planning for the following day. John & I were to do the walk, and Chris was to see the glow worm caves and Doubtful Sound, and drive the hire car to Milford Sound to meet us at the finish of our walk.
The morning bus left the DOC visitor Centre about 15 minutes early. This wasn't a problem as everyone else was as keyed up and early as John and I were. The trip to Te Anau Downs took about 20 minutes. Here we boarded a launch (quite a big tourist boat) to take us across the north east arm of Lake Te Anau to the start of the walk.
Within 20 minutes of being dropped off we were at Glade House - the overnight accommodation for the escorted walkers. Over the next few days we were to become quite jealous of their crisp white linen sheets, hot showers, food, wine, jugs of orange drink just inside the door, and sandfly proof screens. After another hour we were at our first overnight hut called Clinton.
We had lunch and wondered what we were going to do with ourselves for the rest of the day. The answer was - not much. We stood on the raised Helipad and marvelled at the scenery. We walked a little way back along the track and visited the wetlands. We also slowly got to know the other 40 or so walkers who would be our companions over the next 3 days. A very pleasant afternoon.We did plenty of walking on the second day though. The walk to Mintaro Hut took about 6 hours. It was mostly flat along the Clinton River but the last half hour or so was a bit more uphill. We spied plenty of large trout in the river and wished we were close enough to give them a tickle, and had lunch under the shelter of a guided walkers' pitstop.
At Mintaro we organised our bunks and rested...for a while. The weather had been perfect up to now and I'd read somewhere that if the weather was perfect go up to McKinnon Pass to look at the views because the views might not be there the next day. So we (and a few other people) decided to go up - a 3 hour return trip. Our travelling companion on the way up was Maxi, a lady from Arizona.
We were glad we climbed up for 2 reasons. Firstly, the views were absolutely magnificent. We could see miles down the river valley we'd come up, see the cirques at the end of the rivers, and see the snow capped peaks above us. Secondly, it rained the next day!
On day 3 it was heavy going. Dressed in full bad weather gear we climbed up to McKinnon Pass. The peaks we'd seen the day before were not to be seen. However there were now dozens of fresh waterfalls running down the faces of the mountains.
We rested briefly in the MacKinnon Pass Shelter before descending into the valley on the other side. It was heavy going downhill. In addition my Goretex raincoat and overpants were now no longer waterproof and I could feel my clothes and feet getting wetter and wetter. John in his Dry-za-bone was just getting a bit damp under the armpits.
At Quinton (the guided walkers o/n stop) we shared lunch with a zillion sandflies and left our packs there for the 1.5hr return walk to Sutherland Falls. The rain had ceased by now but there was plenty of water coming over the 580m falls.
After we retrieved our packs (they had to be locked away just in case a large Kia parrot ripped them apart) we continued on for another hour to our overnight stop at Dumpling Huts. I wrung out my socks and hung out all my wet clothes beside all the other wet clothes. Nothing dried out overnight though.
Inside the kitchen it was nice and warm - too hot in fact. With all the supplied gas cookers going full bore cooking our meals, it did not take long for it to be like a sauna inside. In spite of the sandflies I spent some time on the veranda outside enjoying the twilight and clearing sky.
Day 4 we were led to believe would be a fine day. It was, but it started with drizzle. It was the last day and I put the rest of my dry clothes on. It was a good walk out with plenty of cascades, raging torrents, Lake Ada, and the ever present peaks in the background.
At Sandfly Point we waited in the sandfly proof shelter for about half an hour. We then again applied more repellant and joined the rest of the walkers milling around the boat at the Jetty. At about 2:30pm we boarded, and twenty minutes later we were in Milford Sound.
Chris was waiting on the jetty (hooray!) and headed us in the direction of the car. A few minutes later we were in the Milford Sound Lodge ready for showers, washing machines and dryers, a few beers, and a steak. A great way to end the walk!
(Well almost - next day we all went on a magic boat cruise on Milford Sound, drove through a tunnel and then on to Queenstown for another steak....)
Lothar.
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