{"id":2704,"date":"2019-12-02T08:18:16","date_gmt":"2019-12-02T13:18:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/?p=2704"},"modified":"2025-08-10T19:48:20","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T23:48:20","slug":"milford-track","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/milford-track\/","title":{"rendered":"Milford Track"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It was the Milford track, and the connection with Jeanne\u2019s hometown of Milford Connecticut, that really sparked this whole trip. No, we\u2019re not going to create a list of all the \u201cMilford\u201d locations in the world, but this was really peaked our interest \u2013 Milford, trekking, vacation \u2013 a trifecta of enjoyment!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Multi-day trekking is a different kind of experience \u2013 carrying all of one\u2019s gear to cover many different weather conditions, brings in additional planning. Doing all that when you\u2019re halfway across the world creates some pretty substantial logistical barriers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Milford Track is one of the premier great walks of New Zealand<\/a>. It is a 4 day, 53km journey through the Fiordland National Park on the south island\u2019s west coast. It is a point-to-point hike and requires a boat to get to the trailhead. Since we didn’t pack a boat in our carry-on, we arranged for a day trip to do a small section of the Milford Track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The day broke with near cloudless skies. We\u2019d been blessed because we\u2019d heard reports of many days of torrential rains in the days leading up to our\u00a0stay in Milford Sound<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n

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View from our bungalow of the Cleddau River<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Meeting up with our group, we gathered at the boat launch for the 5 minute ride across the deepwater basic to the Milford Track trailhead.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Of course, we got the usual selfie at the trailhead.<\/p>\n\n\n

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As with the Routeburn track, it was a bit surprising to see so much vegetation, as if we were in a rainforest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we\u2019d learned while were there, Milford Sound is one of the wettest places in New Zealand, and even the world! On average, it receives a little over 22\u2032 (yes, feet!) of rain annually, raining 182 days per year. That\u2019s a lot of rain!<\/p>\n\n\n

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The track itself, at least in this section was relatively flat \u2013 with little elevation change. Lush vegetation all around. Soon enough, we reached our midway point \u2013 Giants Gate falls.<\/p>\n\n\n

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After some food, and even some hot tea offered by our group guide, we geared up and headed back on the same route. In all, an enjoyable day out with yet more unusual experiences in New Zealand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was the Milford track, and the connection with Jeanne\u2019s hometown of Milford Connecticut, that really sparked this whole trip. No, we\u2019re not going to create a list of all the \u201cMilford\u201d locations in the world, but this was really peaked our interest \u2013 Milford, trekking, vacation \u2013 a trifecta of enjoyment! Multi-day trekking is a different kind of experience \u2013 carrying all of one\u2019s gear to cover many different weather conditions, brings in additional planning. Doing all that whenRead More →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2708,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"category-hiking.php","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2704"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2704\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4944,"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2704\/revisions\/4944"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}