It’s been a long time, my getting around to walking the Milford Track that traverses the northern end of Fiordland National Park. It’s an icon – maybe that is why!
A close friend, a vet of many big mountain trips told me he’d found it harder than he thought it’d be. Well ditto Donald! Strange one really: underfoot the hundred years or whatever of tourism related development shows, so I figured it’s the wildness of the environment might have something to do with the long days seeming longer than their actual time.
My trip really began in Invercargill, where I found my good friend Roger discussing his next photography book with Bill the 25yr old parrot…
On Lake Te Anau heading to the Quentin River…
I just love the clarity of a Fiordland river when it’s not raining…
Roger and Norman in Quentin Hut…
Typical bush and river on the eastern side of the pass…
Hidden Lakes…
En-route up to McKinnon Pass the rain sets in…
Mackinnon Pass was as wild as it gets with driving mist and rain…
Serious rain sets in on the descent…
Thankfully the whole group reached Dumpling Hut by 4 pm, and we’re talking an inch of rain per hour at this stage of the day…
Next day – the end day dawned fine as we walked in the bush mostly beside a dropping Arthur River…
MacKay Falls really took my breath away…
The Arthur River heads to the sea – sometimes quietly, sometimes very dynamically, but always scenically…
By the end of the trip everyone has made a few friends…
This rather quaint displacement hull vessel took us the ten minutes back to the tourist side of Milford Sound…
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