Backpacking the Milford Track in New Zealand is something I’ve wanted to do for years, basically since my last New Zealand trip. It’s touted as one of the best trails in the whole world. If that isn’t a must-do selling point, I don’t know what is.
Read on for all the details like getting a permit to things to bring for backpacking the Milford Track.
Our last day on the Milford Track, we woke up to steady rain on the roof of the Dumpling Hut. It was gonna be a long, wet 11.2 miles on the trail to Milford Sound.
Ever since I did the Routeburn Track back in 2015, the Milford Track was very high on my list. Last year, I was lucky enough to score permits for this once in a life time backpacking trip. The Milford Track is a highly regulated Great Walk in New Zealand. Unlike other popular tracks, this one follows a strict schedule. Because of this, every hiker spends four days and thee nights on the trail. Read on to learn more about our first day from Te Anau Downs to Clinton Hut.
After finishing up my kayaking trip with Rosco’s Milford Kayaks, I had all the time to kill in the world. Lack of a car made it very difficult to get out of Milford Sound and the weather was too incredibly nice to spend it lazying around Milford Sound Lodge. With the US dollar’s strength, I was livin’ large, so I booked the last cruise for the day in the sound with Mitre Peak Cruises.
Milford Sound is one of the must-see places in New Zealand, according to anyone who has ever heard of New Zealand. After coming off the Routeburn Track, I hopped on a bus to Milford Sound. The standard sound exploration is via boat cruise. I wanted something different; I wanted to work for my experience, so I booked a trip with Rosco’s Milford Kayaks for the Stirling Sunriser trip. I was going to kayak under a waterfall!
My trip to New Zealand was my first ever international solo trip. Well, my first real big solo trip, ever. The idea of figuring out transport from destination to destination was really daunting. Really, really daunting. Normally I’d be okay with renting a car but factor in hours and hours of driving and the whole driving on the other side of the road thing and that idea died pretty quickly. I hate driving, except for the fact that I can sing along to my favorite country songs.
I considered hopping on the Kiwi Experience for a good period of time as it touched a little bit of everything I wanted to do. As I kept researching, my itinerary ended up diverging from the trip’s itinerary, and frankly, I like the outdoors more than I like being outgoing. After booking my huts for the Routeburn track, I said hell with it, I’ll figure out how to travel around the South Island without a car. To my surprise, it was surprisingly easy.
