Getting ready for the long walk!
Trip Start
Jun 11, 2008
1
154
349
Trip End
May 14, 2009
Te Anau,
South Island,
New Zealand
Saturday, November 1, 2008
We arrived into town at about 10.30am after having a few sightseeing stops on the way. We all went into the Pop Inn Café for a fry-up. This was going to be Lorna & my last big brekky for about 5 days!
We then got dropped off at the Te Anau Holiday Park and said our goodbyes to the last four, Laura, Stefan, Siobahn and Scouse Chris. We also said farewell to Nana who has been a great driver & guide over the past week. He really has helped to make this leg of our trip more enjoyable. When we checked in at the reception we were told the backpackers lodge at the park wasn't open yet so we had got a free upgrade to a double room (not ensuite). Marvellous.
We went over to the DOC Centre to pick up our trek tickets - they only allow 40 people a day do this trek which is why you need a ticket. We then went and picked up our supplies for the trip. Mainly dried foods and water. After packing our bags - noting that I had a big rucksack and Lorna had a small day bag, which contained all the food, surprise surprise - we used the communal kitchen to do a Spag Bol.
After dinner we sat and watched Liar Liar in the TV room and the watched the All Blacks beat the Wallabies in the rugby. The lodge didn't have all the sports channels so I couldn't watch any of the Premier League games.
Also, gonna miss two big things whilst walking this weekend - Hamilton trying to win the F1 Championship and the Forest v Derby match. I'm not going to know the results until Wednesday afternoon!!!
Here is a quick history of the track. I will also put the walk details on here later.
HISTORY
What today is known as the Milford Track was once one of the two principal trails, used by Maori, linking Fiordland with the rest of Te Wai Pounamu (South Island) for the
gathering of pounamu (greenstone). The translucent kokotakiwai, (bowenite form of pounamu), found mainly near the entrance of Piopiotahi (Milford Sound) was favoured as it
was softer and easier to shape into a finer quality product, such as hei-tiki. Koko-takiwai was transported by backpack over Omanui (Mackinnon Pass) down the Waitawai (Clinton River) to the head of Te Ana-au (Lake Te Anau) and by canoe to the head of the Waiau River and beyond. Legend tells of the visit to Piopiotahi by the waka (canoe) Tairea. Koko-takiwai and her children, known as Matakirikiri, were left behind by the Tairea and were turned into the various forms of pounamu. Donald Sutherland and John Mackay found Mackay and Sutherland Falls in 1880 and possibly also crossed Mackinnon Pass before pioneer explorer and surveyor Quintin Mackinnon. In 1888 Sutherland and others were
commissioned to cut a track up the Arthur Valley as far as Sutherland Falls, while Mackinnon was employed to cut a track up the Clinton Valley from the head of Lake Te Anau. On 17 October 1888 Mackinnon and his companion Ernest Mitchell reached the head of the Clinton Valley, crossed the pass and continued down the Arthur Valley on the track cut by Sutherland. Mackinnon was the first Milford Track guide and was long remembered for his good nature and ability at cooking pompolonas, a type of scone from which one of the guided trip huts takes its name. He ferried parties in his sailing boat Juliet to the head of Lake Te Anau, then up over the pass to Lake Ada, where another boat ferried them to Sutherland's accommodation house at Milford Sound. Trampers then had to walk back long the track from Milford Sound until 1954, when the Te Anau-Milford Sound highway opened. In the early days pack horses were used to carry stores to the huts. Beyond Pompolona Hut is a cleared area which was the old horse paddock and stables site. Old number eight wire and insulators visible along parts of the track are the remains of a telephone system, which linked the huts before radio communication was adopted. The title "the finest walk in the world" first accompanied an article by poet Blanche Baughan, which was published in
The London Spectator in 1908. Today the Milford Track is New Zealand's best known walking track, with over 14,000 independent and guided trampers completing the track each year.
