The Magical Milford Track

The Milford Track: New Zealand’s most famous hike, and proclaimed as “the finest walk in the world”.

Around 100 years ago, an article appeared in the London Spectator written by the poet Blanche Baughan, who declared the Milford Track to be the world’s finest walk. Since then, those lucky enough to get a golden ticket onto the track have been in vast agreement.

After 3 of us sat on our laptops in 3 different parts on New Zealand manically refreshing the Department of Conservation page the minute the bookings opened, we were lucky enough to get a spot ourselves and walk this magical track over ANZAC weekend in April 2022.

Here’s everything you could possibly need to know about the magnificent, magical Milford Track which needs to be top of your New Zealand bucket list whether you’re a hiker or not.

About the Milford Track

The Milford Track is one of New Zealand’s 9 Great Walks, and arguably is the most exquisite of them all. Booking the huts really is like trying to get tickets to an Adele or Ed Sheeran concert…and we had the advantage we were attempting such a difficult feat whilst the international border was shut due to Covid-19.

This being said, 14,000 people complete the track each year. Most of these during the Great Walks Season between November- April, and a small portion during the winter months when the huts aren’t wardened and the risk of avalanche is high. For many this is a one in a lifetime opportunity, and believe us it is not one miss.

The Milford Track is a linear route that can only be walked in one direction, and it must be completed over 4 days. The huts have capacity for a maximum of 40 walkers per night, meaning that each day there will only ever be 40 people on each section of the track, even in peak season! This is to help maintain the natural beauty, protect the environment and avoid overcrowding.

The 53.5km track is incredibly well maintained, and despite it being a long walk, it is not too challenging. There is a short uphill walk of around 2 hours on the third day to reach Mackinnon Pass, but otherwise the walk is quite steady as you traverse through the Clinton and Arthur Valleys. Whilst they are long walking days, the stunning views make the time pass incredibly quickly.

There are 3 gorgeous huts you sleep in along the Milford Track, each costing $78 per night for New Zealand residents and $110 per night for international visitors. The hut for the second night, Mintaro Hut, is brand new for 2022 with luxuries such as USB charging ports and lighting!

Where is the Milford Track?

The Milford Track is situated in the beautiful Fiordland National Park in Southland, tucked away in the west corner of New Zealand’s South Island.

Queenstown, Queenstown-Lakes District, Otago, 9348, New Zealand

Te Anau, Fiordland Community, Southland District, Southland, 9600, New Zealand

Glade Wharf, Fiordland Community, Southland District, Southland, New Zealand

Clinton Hut, Milford Track, Fiordland Community, Southland District, Southland, New Zealand

Mintaro Hut, Milford Track, Fiordland Community, Southland District, Southland, New Zealand

Dumpling Hut, Milford Track, Fiordland Community, Southland District, Southland, New Zealand

Sandfly Point, Fiordland Community, Southland District, Southland, New Zealand

Fiordland National Park covers 1.3 million hectares of remote mountainous terrain and is home to n0t only one of NZ’s Great Walks but three – also being Kepler and Routeburn.

The Milford track starts from Te Anau Downs and finishes at Milford Sound winding past pristine lakes, sky-scraping mountain peaks and through towering valleys.

The closest township to the track is Te Anau (33km), a small lakeside town with accommodation and basic services, with the closest airport being even further away in Queenstown (165km).

Weather on the Milford Track

“Milford Sound is the wettest inhabited place in New Zealand, and one of the wettest places in the world”

Milford-sound.co.nz

Many say that rain makes the Milford experience even more magical, and they’re right. Without rain, there isn’t as many waterfalls, and that is something which on the right day the track has in abundance, cascading down every rock face. Nonetheless, walking in the rain is never too enjoyable.

In our case, April was the wettest month the National Park had seen for the entire 2022 season, this meant we had hundreds of waterfalls to admire as we made our way through Clinton Valley.

Fortunately, we were incredibly lucky with our weather on the Milford Track. We had the perfect combination of heavy rain prior to embarking on the walk, and during our first 2 nights. However, we managed to stay completely dry during the day!

Extreme Weather

Be prepared, on average it rains on the Milford Track 200 days of the year, so you’re twice as likely to get a wet day than not.

Rain means you may experience a muddy track, and perhaps even flash flooding in places which can become very dangerous. Besides just the rain, there is a persistent avalanche risk along the Milford Track – particularly out of season. Surprisingly, this risk is even present through November and December too, however these high risk areas are well sign posted and there are avalanche escape routes if needed!

The unpredictable and turbulent weather that Fiordland experiences means there’s no guarantee you’ll make it on to the track, any time of the year. DOC closely monitor the forecast and track conditions, and if things get really hairy, they will even get you helicoptered out if the risk increases once you’ve started your hike!

Getting to the Milford Track

The Milford Track is not particularly easy to get to and does require both bus and boat transfers – but this remoteness is what contributes to Milford’s beauty.

We booked our transport with TrackNet, who picked us up from the centre of Queenstown and took us through to Te Anau Downs. We departed at 10:30am and arrived at the Downs by 2pm. Admittedly it is a long journey which can be shortened by being picked up in Te Anau instead.

From Te Anau Downs, you jump onboard a watertaxi which takes you right to the start of the track at Glade Wharf. It’s a beautiful cruise (approx. 1.15hrs) and our captain provided a fascinating commentary about the area’s geography and history.

On the boat you cross the 45th parallel – where you’re exactly halfway between the South Pole and the Equator. You also pass Leigh Island where many historic Maori artifacts were found by early explorers.

Once you have completed the Milford Track, the set up is much the same; you get collected by a watertaxi from Sandfly Point at 2pm and motor on the water for 15 minutes before arriving at Milford Sound. The views here are incredible and worth a visit in their own right!

Your shuttle is waiting on arrival, where you along with other weary and smelly hikers will pile into the minibus and head back to Te Anau or Queenstown – depending on where you are staying. We left at 2:30pm and arrived back in Queenstown by 7:30pm.

If you’re unfamiliar with the area, I would recommend heading back to Queenstown for far better food and drink options. After 4 days of freeze-dried food there’s nothing more appealing than a famous Fergburger!

The cost of the buses and the watertaxis’ worked out at about $280 per person. This would of course be cheaper if you were staying in Te Anau, which I guess would be the better option if you have a car in the South Island and aren’t flying back out of Queenstown.

Day 1: Glade Wharf – Clinton Hut

• DOC says: 1-1.5 hours/ 5km
• Garmin says: 1 hours/ 5.5km

Note – I thought it would be useful to share our Garmin watch timings and distances each day as I know so many people now have smart watches. We, and many people we met along the way, found that our watches stated we’d walked much further than DOC suggests – so consider this when planning your lunch stops!

After a long morning of travelling, followed by the stunningly eerie boat cruise, you arrive at Glade Wharf ready to embark on your first day of walking.

The first day on the track introduces you to the beautiful rainforest full of rich green flora and moss lined trees. You mostly follow Clinton River through the valley, and every now and then catch some glimpses of the mountains through the tree line.

There are various points on the track you could veer off and go for a swim in the crystal clear water. Mitch went for a swim here and screamed it was the coldest water he had ever been in, but super refreshing!

If you don’t fancy swimming, be sure to fill up your hydration pack with New Zealand’s purest water. Filtered through the Fiordland mountains over hundreds of years – you won’t find anything cleaner and clearer than this!

You cross the first of many impressive swing bridges with breathtaking views over the Clinton River. The emerald green reflection of the forest into the water is quite a spectacle on a calm, windless day.

Clinton Hut

The first nights stay is at Clinton Hut which has 2 large bunk rooms and the first glimpse of the incredible waterfalls. All huts on the track have kitchen areas with gas stoves available, meaning cooking apparatus are one less thing you need to carry in your pack. They also all have a proper toilet building with flushing toilets and sinks with running water – quite a luxury!

Completing the track in summer season, every night at each of the huts you can expect a talk with the camp ranger running each one. They would help us to prepare for the coming day, inform us of hut etiquette and health and safety procedures. They were very informative about all aspects of backcountry living, sharing some hilarious stories about the very cheeky Kea birds on the track.

The first warden Ross, had been working on the track for over 15 years and offered a guided bush walk pointing out the native flora and fauna around the hut. All the hikers then settled into the camp kitchen for the evening, cooking dinner and playing card games, before heading to the bunks for an early night ahead of the second day.

Day 2: Clinton Hut – Mintaro Hut

• DOC says: 6 hours/ 17.5km
• Garmin says: 6 hours/ 21.65km

The second day on the track was actually my favourite. Despite the wow factor views not coming in till the third day, I found the walking itself incredibly enjoyable with varied terrains.

We left Clinton Hut at around 8:30am after a quick cereal breakfast and coffee. I was quite surprised how easy the walking was. Although it was a very long day, the track really was completely flat until perhaps the last hour of walking when you veer uphill to look back down the Clinton Valley.

There are a handful of little sidetracks you can take, only 5-10 minutes of a detour, and we can’t recommend taking them enough. The views at Prairie Lake and Hidden Lake were some of our favourites – these make for a far better lunch stop than the recommended shelters.

We planned to stop and have lunch at Prairie Shelter as it was around the halfway point of the days walking. Don’t do this! This was the only place we found on the track that was absolutely swarming with sandflies. It was incredibly unenjoyable, there is another much more comfortable shelter for lunch just 20 minutes further along the track at the Bus Stop Shelter.

Mintaro Hut

This hut really is a hikers luxury. As mentioned above, this is a new build for the 21/22 season and the facilities are fantastic! We were lucky enough to see 5 of the resident Kea birds hanging around the bathroom block too (where apparently they’ve been stealing the toilet brushes!)

Our hut warden Simone was incredibly enthusiastic, explaining all about the process of building the new hut and sharing some great tips for looking after our hiking gear.

The hut has 4 10-bed bunk rooms, allowing you to escape from the snorers if you were lucky enough to figure out who the culprit was the night before, and provided a very comfortable nights sleep!

Day 3: Mintaro Hut – Dumpling Hut

• DOC says: 6-7 hours/ 13km
• Garmin says: 8.5 hours/ 21.5km (with Sutherland Falls side track)

Day 3 has 2 main wow factor moments, the first being at the top of Mackinnon Pass, the highest point on the track at 1,140m. The second is Sutherland Falls, one of the tallest waterfalls in New Zealand at 581m which you can only reach by taking a 1.5 hour return detour once you reach Quintin Lodge. Our Garmin watches calculated it to be 5km return, and no matter how tired you feel, it is one of the best parts of the track so make sure you don’t skip it!

We left Mintaro Hut nice and early to allow ourselves ample time to fit in the highly recommended detour to Sutherland Falls. Day 3 starts with a 2 hour climb up to Mackinnon Pass which zigzags up immediately as you leave Mintaro Hut.

At the top of the pass, you reach the Mackinnon Memorial surrounded by snow capped mountains, glistening tarns and soaring Kea (if you’re lucky!). It really is beautiful, and it takes around 30 more minutes before you reach the highest point on the track and Mackinnon Pass shelter.

The next 4 hours is downhill meandering through Arthur Valley, before arriving at Quintin Lodge and the turn off for Sutherland Falls – a great stop for lunch.

Take your pack off and put on your waterproof to head to the waterfall – water drops from such a thunderous height that the spray reaches you from over 100m away!

The final hour of the track is pretty flat before you reach Dumpling Hut where you can expect more of the same for your final night.

Day 4: Dumpling Hut – Sandfly Point

• DOC says: 5.5-6 hours/ 18km
• Garmin says: 5.5 hours/ 21.8km

Everyone was up really early for the final day to make sure they weren’t the ones delaying the water taxi leaving at 2pm!

The final days walking is mostly flat with a few fluctuating gradients. There are some more beautiful views to leave you with, before you finally reach Sandfly point. Be sure to take a picture here to prove you made it!

The water taxi was prompt and fortunately no one was late to the pick up point. The short cruise gives you a sneaky look at Mitre Peak in the distance as well as coming past Lady Bowen falls.

Many hikers had booked a cruise of Milford Sound as they finished the walk, and I really wish we’d done this especially given the stunning weather we were blessed with for our final day.

Instead, we were picked up by our shuttle and made the long journey back to Queenstown for the Fergburger we’d been talking about devouring for the last 4 days.

Is it the finest walk in the world?

Well it’s certainly one of our favourite walks to date, and it definitely does live up to it’s grand reputation.

Something I really loved about the walk was the sense of community within our group. Different to other Great Walks or multi-day hikes where you can travel in different directions or have different options for accommodation, the Milford Track has a set route so everyone covers the same distance each day and reconvenes each night to discuss the day’s adventure and play card games.

By the end of the 4 days you end up knowing most of the people in your group, making new friends and hearing some great stories from people living all over the world.

After 3 nights waking up to the mountainous views of the Fiordland National Park you’ll be sure to have fallen in love with New Zealand and craving your next wilderness adventure in the great outdoors.

Interested in another Great Walk?

Check out our other posts on hiking the Abel Tasman or Tongariro Northern Circuit if you can’t get enough of NZ Great Walks!