John Jordan beneath one of the many spectacular waterfalls in the Clinton River Valley.All pictures taken by Juliet and Steve Gibbons of New Zealand Walks

The Footsteps of Early ExplorersIn the picturesque South Island town of Te Anau, on the edge of the dramatic and expansive Fiordland National Park, there is a bronze statue of a man called Quintin MacKinnon.

Locals understand the significance of this heavily bearded figure, depicted with a pack slung over his back and hobnail boots on his feet. Having walked the Milford Track, I now understand it too.

Delve a little deeper into the track’s history and you will also find a fascinating insight into the life of the hard men of this country’s pioneering days. In 1888 the Government funded the first track-making expedition in the Arthur and Clinton river valleys through which the Milford Track today wanders. This was after considerable efforts to find a way through for at least a decade or more prior had failed, although Maori had long traversed the area.

The goal was a new route from Te Anau in the east to Milford Sound in the west, a sort of holy grail for those settling the land at the time. That same year cometh the hour, cometh the man – a Scotsman called Quintin

MacKinnon (born of the Shetland Islands), accompanied by a strapping young local man from nearby Manapouri Station called

There is always a swing bridge! Crossing the Clinton River, day 1

Walkers disembark at the start of the Milford Track, Glade Wharf, Lake Te Anau

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Copyright New Zealand Walks/Geographx

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Earnest Mitchell. They were to be the first to find and traverse the pass now known as MacKinnon Pass, a feat which was to test every ounce of their strength, endurance, patience and determination in brutal terrain and with nature’s full fury of weather thrown at them along the way. Anecdotally (according to one of the DOC hut wardens we met), around 12,000 people on freedom walks and countless guided walkers now trace those same steps every year. One can only marvel at the incredible fortitude of those early pioneering fellows!

My Dad and I stood and took a photo by the bronze of MacKinnon as we waited for the bus to take us to Te Anau Downs, the departure place for the boat ride to the start of the Milford Track. I touched his boot in

the hope it would bestow good weather and good times on our walk through his part of New Zealand history. It worked.

Our four days walking through some of the most beautiful and unspoiled places of New Zealand were completed in fine weather, with only one shower disrupting proceedings on our first night, at Clinton Hut. For an area that can receive a lot of rain (Fiordland National Park can experience up to 9000 mm per year) and where weather conditions can change rapidly (only a few weeks before there was snow on MacKinnon Pass), this was exceptionally lucky. MacKinnon was looking out for us.

It had been an easy day too from the start of the track at Glade Wharf which sits at around

Juliet Gibbons with her father John at the start of the track

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200 metres above sea level at the head of Lake Te Anau with just 5 kilometres to walk to the first hut. It was even easier for the guided walkers who had a paltry 1 kilometre walk to navigate to their private accommodation for the night at Glade House. It was hot and there were some requests about the possibility of the purchase of a cold beer as we passed, but to no avail.

As are the other huts on the track, Clinton Hut is a typical DOC issue with a large communal kitchen and dining area fully supplied with gas. Walkers just need to bring clothing, pots, food, eating and sleeping equipment. Nearby are a couple of dorm rooms, again typical of the hut-style experience with simple bunks and mattresses supplied. Ear plugs – not standard issue – are highly recommended.

A night in a New Zealand hut is one to behold as different ages and nationalities converge in an eclectic mix of snoring, conversations, cooking and camaraderie. It was my Dad’s first experience of this and was not without a touch of hut-shock, but to his credit, he rallied and embraced this new culture and by the end was a seasoned veteran.

The following day we woke to bright skies with just a few clouds rolling overhead. Days one and two of the Milford Track are very picturesque as walkers follow the crystal-clear water of the Clinton River, rising ever upwards towards the mighty MacKinnon Pass. From Clinton Hut to night two at Mintaro Hut, we took our time completing the 16.5 kilometre stretch in just under 8 hours (others did it in 6 hours). With snow having recently fallen, there were countless waterfalls streaming from above and some avalanche areas where stopping was avoided. All completed with a gut buster of a climb into the hanging basin where Mintaro Hut is placed.

Keas

On the ascent to MacKinnon Pass

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MacKinnon and Mitchell were to call this place Lake Beautiful but later renamed it Mintaro. The reason for this is still a mystery – there is a town of the same name in South Australia named by the Spanish who ran mule trains and bullock wagons between the coast and copper mines at Burra. In Spanish it means resting place.

Undoubtedly the most jaw-droppingly beautiful place for a hut on the Milford Track, Mintaro is perched below the MacKinnon Pass with a view on all sides of sheer granite mountains. It’s also a place popular with the New Zealand kea, an alpine parrot known for its high intelligence and amusing antics. As we prepared our porridge, they entertained us by sliding down the roof of the nearby toilet block.

Kea have a reputation for being partial to destroying boots and so all footwear was hung up on hooks overnight to ensure their habits were not indulged on this occasion!

All through tracks lead to the pass and, so it was on day three of our journey we made the final two hour ascent in the footsteps of MacKinnon to the top. The highest point on the track at 1154 metres is a moment of achievement – but then the descent begins. This is a punishing part of the track and one we found challenging, but every step is rewarded with views of the snow-capped peaks above and the silver-dusted schist rocks below one’s boots. As my Dad’s GP had remarked during his medical prior to the trip, it made him feel close to God. I agree that it is a spiritual and special place. Our time to travel was a particularly pretty one with Mount Cook daisy and the lily of the same name in their full finery everywhere.

After what seems a never-ending series of steps, boardwalks and staircases, following the cascading waters of the impressive Roaring Burns River, the valley floor was reached, an altitude of about 125 metres. Here a side track takes walkers to the much-photographed Sutherland Falls, the second highest waterfall in New Zealand. If you are able, after the descent, it is well worth the

side trip but there is also a great vantage point from the main track 20 minutes on.

Night three of the track is at Dumpling Hut, set on river flats, a welcome sight and for myself, arrival was swiftly followed by a dunk in the chillingly refreshing Arthur River which seemed to restore my body temperature to normal after a walk spent at times in 30 degree heat. There were no parties in the hut that night as most nursed sore calves and stiff joints from the day – just 14 kilometres - but every kilometre was a tough one. Every single ache was worth it of course.

It’s amazing how a walk brings people together. We were two of just six New Zealanders on the track – the other 34 were from various parts of the globe. Yet all combined with a shared love of walking and friendships were forged. As a former guide, I’ve always found that walking is a great leveller and binds people in a way they would not otherwise imagine.

So we set off for the final day of the Milford Track with some sense of heightened purpose mostly based around a 2pm pick up at Sandfly Point where a boat collects walkers and returns them to the relative

The mighty Sutherland Falls

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civilisation of the small Milford Village, on the edge of Milford Sound. It’s a scenic and overall easy day although the longest at 18 kilometres of all the days on the track. Highlights for us included Giant Gate Falls where water poured down sheer, smooth rock into a clear pool and the pretty Lake Ada with its sweeping sandy curves and shallows.

Too soon (or just on time) we reached Sandfly Point and boarded the boat for home. My final image is of international visitors swatting away the black fly which for some reason did not like the taste of me and so I gazed at the magnificence of Milford Sound instead. This was not the intent of the underworld goddess Hine-nui-te-po who according to Maori mythology, when she first saw the fiord's beauty, feared that visitors would never leave, so released the sandfly (namu) to chase them away.

In the end though, it was time to leave. It was the conclusion of a wonderful journey with a special man, my Dad, who at 72 was in better shape than I was at the final mark. Thanks Dad.

Water is everywhere on the Milford Track including the dramatic Mackay Falls on the last day of the walk

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