The end of the track

Our final days walk was a long one, and we set out from Dumpling hut at 7 in the morning. 6 hours walking later we came to Sandfly point, the end of the track. It has been a great adventure with a really good group of friends through some of the most beautiful country I have seen.

We were all tired, sore feet for sure, and very glad to sit and relax before the boat ride back to Milford Sound.

30 hours later we were back home at Sunrise beach.

Sutherland Falls

We took the hour and a half detour to Sutherland falls near the end of the 3rd day. As Deb said, we couldn't come all this way and not see what was once thought to be the highest waterfallin the world. At 584 metres it is very impressive, a constant roar of water crashes onto the rocks at the base of the falls. Well worth the effort.

On the Milford Track

After a night in Te Anua (which nobody can pronounce consistently), we set off for the Milford track. A bus to a boat, and a very pleasant ride across the lake with 2 of the oldest boaties I've travelled with.

Day 1 was only short, 5 k's and we were at the hut. That night the ranger told us we were in for an extended period of fine weather, which made everyone happy! We went out onto the helipad that night and were treated to a tour of the night sky, without any artificial light the stars blazed out above us.

Beautiful scenery the next day as we walked 18 ks along the Clinton river to Clinton hut.

Next morning we climbed high up towards Mackinnon pass and were rewarded with fantastic views of the surrounding ranges, waterfalls and the pass ahead in the distance.

We spent the night in Mintaro hut, and the temperature dropped below freezing. Completely rugged up in our sleeping bags, jackets, beanies etc we all slept very soundly.

Next morning we climbed in icy mist to Mackinnon pass, and were rewarded with a magnificent view of the mist rolling through the pass. A big days walking through splendid mountain scenery, a long descent and the track very rough underfoot.

On the Routeburn Track

We have spent the last three days hiking the Routeburn track, starting from Queenstown where we spent the night.

The bus ride was great, with our driver Ali telling us all sorts of info about the local area, which was used for a lot of the locations for "Lord of the Rings". A typical Kiwi, she was down to earth and took the failure of the windscreen wipers in her stride. Luckily we had Keba engineering on hand for running repairs in the lovely little town of Glenorchy.

Ali dropped us at the start of the track and off we went for 3 days hiking, 2 nights in the huts along the way, it's been great. Routeburn is pretty steep in places, we went up to around 1200 metres (I think). The valley is dominated by running water and steep hills.

Here is the first of several dozen suspension bridges we crossed in our travels.

Our second day it rained all day, high winds as we crossed the pass, and despite having all the gear, everyone was soaked!

The scene in the hut that night was amazing, soaking wet gear from 40 trampers all stacked around the pot belly stove. Heaps of coal, the old Kin Kin fire stoking skills came in to play as the night wore on and next morning most of the gear was passable, if not dry. A bundy rum eased the aches and pains.

Our final stage on this track was fantastic, beautiful weather and incredible views of the high mountains and deep river valleys, water crashing out of the rocks all around us.

A long descent to the end of the track and onto the bus for the trip to Te Anua. We have spent the night, regained our energy, and now we are off on the launch to begin the Milford track. 4 days, 3 nights, the forecast is good, with the possibility of snow! Unreal!

So far, so good

Ok, here we are in NZ, last night we cruised Christchurch and had italian seafood at a v nice restaurant. Christchurch is a bit ordinary, been there seen that. The cathedral and the Avon river are nice.

Then this afternoon flew to Queenstown. What a flight!! We had hardly taken off before it was time to land, then the plane spent 20 minutes weaving through the mountains before dropping down through the clouds onto the runway. Beautiful scenery, high hills all around, snow on the peaks. We've bought our rations for the trip and we're off into the hills in the morning.

Talk again soon.

Rain, rain, rain

Apparently the Milford area is famous for rain, amongst other things, so it's just as well we are prepared. And we cancelled our hike this morning because of rain, it didn't seem smart to get all the gear wet the day before we go but as Debbie says, it's not meant to get wet.

Getting ready

We've been training for this for 2 months, doing lots of walks. My idea was to be able to do distance carrying a pack with weight in it, so that's what I've been doing. It's gone well, and Debbie and I now enjoy a 2 or 3 hour walk with 10 - 12 kilos each in our packs as part of a regular weekly schedule that also has us doing a couple of shorter hikes during the week.

We like to go up and down the Veridian steps above Hastings street in Noosa and also to climb bayview terrace to get back up to the Noosa Lookout. It's steep!! and with the pack it's a good workout.