Days 1 & 2
Day 3, Christmas
The sound of falling rain woke me up a couple of times at night. So far, we were incredibly lucky with the weather. When we did Routeburn we only got sprinkled a little. Apart from that, the weather was pleasantly warm and dry. This area is one of the wettest in the world. Apparently, it was impossible to walk Milford and not to get drenched at least once. The time had come for us to get our share of precipitation.
We got up at 5.40 am, packed and went to the dining area to make lunch. All hikers quietly worked on their sandwiches, yesterday’s enthusiasm was gone without a trace, although it happened to be Christmas Day. Our guides – 4 girls of about 20 years old – did their best to cheer us up.
“The waterfalls will be full and look amazing,” – they said with bright smiles, – “and there will be no sandflies.”
Sandflies in New Zealand are small insects that attack as soon as you stop to take a photo or to catch your breath. Their bites are not dangerous and heal within a day or two if not scratched. However, a swamp of sandflies swirling around is annoying. Naturally, they disappear during the rain.
We finished breakfast and at 7.30 am, gathered outside. The rain did not show any sign of abating. We had no choice but leave at the scheduled time. The trail narrowed and started climbing up gradually. Water was everywhere around us – in waterfalls, lakes, small streams under our feet and falling from the sky. In an hour, the soaked-through condition became acceptable as quite normal and I stopped paying attention to the water sloshing in my boots. The day was warm to catch a cold.
After 2 hours of hiking up the wet slippery rocks, we came to the first day shelter. It was closed for cleaning, we were too early. Some people sat down to have a snack, others continued walking. I changed into a dry shirt and decided not to stay there either.
By 10 am the rain ceased. and by noon, we reached Mackinnon Pass, the highest point of the route, and the second shelter where our guides waited for us with hot tea and coffee. From there, the trail was going down.
That day, I got to the lodge late. There was a waterfall nearby that the guides recommended to see but I had no time left and I was pretty tired. All I wanted were a hot shower and a meal. I washed a pile of sweaty wet clothes and took everything to the drying room including my boots and the backpack.
The Christmas dinner was disappointing. It was good as usual but we expected something special, perhaps a glass of champagne for everyone. Our guides served dinner wearing Christmas vests with the deer and red hats with white pompoms in an effort to make it look like a festivity. However, the food was the same, all of us were visibly tired – 15 km up and down the trail with a backpack was not a walk in the park. I picked up my already dry stuff from the drying room and went to bed. The distance on the following day was going to be 20 km but trail would be flat – easy as pie compared to going over Mackinnon Pass.