Nz hosts ten Great Walks. From individuals ten, the Milford Track is perhaps probably the most legendary. It’s the one that evokes pictures of cascading waterfalls and plush eco-friendly peaks inside your imagination. It is a bucket-list multi-day hike for New Zealanders and smart vacationers alike.
Located in the stunning Fiordland Park, the Milford Track is 53.5 km (33.2 miles) long and it’ll take four days to accomplish. Beginning from Glade Wharf, Lake Te Anau, and winding its method to Sandfly Reason for Milford Seem, you will come across nature at its best, a cacophony of color, seem, and scenery so potent it’ll make you without words.
1. Choose wisely what season just to walk the Milford Track
Fiordland is well known because of its unpredictable weather. Selecting the best season just to walk it will save you from a number of its extremes. The Brand New Zealand hiking season generally runs from spring right through to fall (October to May). We do not recommend taking it on in the winter months because of the avalanche and flooding risk.
2. Decide whether to choose a led group or go on alone
A large decision when investing in this stunning multi-day hike is whether or not to DIY it or enroll in a led group. You will find pros and cons to both. Choose to do it yourself and it’ll be less demanding in your wallet, nevertheless, it will not be less taxing in your brain as you’ll have to organize all of the logistics on your own. Including organizing your personal transportation, accommodation, and transporting your personal supplies. Get it done included in a led group and every one of this really is taken proper care of for you personally.
Bear in mind, if you are planning to organize yourself for it, you will have to book the Milford Track more than a year ahead of time. An excellent source of the independent walker may be the DOC (Department of Conservation) office. There, you’re going to get maps and all sorts of advice you’ll ever need.
Milford Track is really one of the ways track. This means that if you are not booking onto a led tour, you will need to prebook buses from Te Anau as well as your boat ticket from Sandfly Point to Milford.
3. Prepare to see backcountry huts in most of their glory
No multi-day walk-in Nz could be complete with no night inside a backcountry hut. You’ll spend three nights oversleeping DOC huts (shelters designed for hikers in the backcountry) while on your adventure. Freedom camping isn’t allowed inside Fiordland Park. The huts along Milford Track are Clinton Hut, Mintaro Hut, and Dumpling Hut. They’ll fit as much as 40 people and also have communal kitchens, mattresses to rest on in most cases a log or coal burner. There’s electricity that switches off once night falls. What they don’t have is showers or blankets so bring a hot change of garments as well as your sleeping bag!
4. Pack carefully and bear all you need!
There aren’t any shops or towns when you set foot about this Great Walk you’ll be completely immersed anyway. Therefore it may be also totally self-reliant so carry the thing you need throughout the trip. Including all your food supplies in the morning, lunch, dinner, and snacks for those four days. The good thing is there’s lots of water around the track so a minimum of you will not need to lug liters and liters of water around.
Another item for the packing list is really a decent waterproof jacket. Fiordland may be the wettest devote Nz, getting 182 rain days annually typically. On the positive note, rainfall makes Milford much more beautiful, if that is even possible! As lengthy while you come prepared, it shouldn’t hinder your enjoyment of the natural nirvana within the smallest.
On a side note, if you’re acquainted with Nz, you might have heard about individuals annoying blighters referred to as sandflies. Based on Maori legend, the gods who produced this stunning haven worried it had become so beautiful that humans would not leave. To prevent that from happening, they introduced sandflies towards the area! They aren’t poisonous however they do bite so make certain to bring along insect repellent!
You will need roughly a 60-liter backpack to hold all your supplies. Involving the food, sleeping bag, cooking utensils, and toiletries, there’s a lot of things involved with being self-sufficient!
5. Have the digital camera ready!
Milford Track is among the most breathtaking tracks on the planet, and so do the digital camera (and lots of spare batteries) ready whatsoever occasions. The closer you’re able to Milford Seem itself, the greater stunning the scenery becomes. The third day is really a particular highlight. You’ll hike within the Mackinnon Pass and revel in insane views from the valley below using its endless jagged peaks. You’ll seem like you’re in another world! A specific highlight around the descent may be the 580 meters (1904ft) Sutherland Falls, certainly one of New Zealand’s greatest waterfalls. On your final day’s the trek, you’ll enter Milford Seem itself as well as your jaw will stop in awe. You’ve arrived at paradise.
