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Keith and Anne Quinn on the Milford Track in 1994 - Source: ONE Sport
This week my story involves walking the beautiful Milford Track, deep in the Fiordland of New Zealand's South Island. My wife Anne and I had kind of achieved the feat in 1994 and this year, we sought to do it again. And to get it fully and properly done.
Back in December 1994 we were much younger of course but that week we were on the track we were aided by an avalanche which blocked the steepest part of the four day walk. The track was therefore closed for a day to all walkers. Our group of some 40 people were instead helicoptered to safety onto the next stage of our journey.
So while that was an exciting diversion and we completed the rest of the hike with no problems it had niggled us both over the years that we had not really fulfilled the walk 100%. We had missed the toughest part.
Sure we had had a happy photograph taken at the 54 kilometre walk's end, at the very appropriately named 'Sandfly Point,' and our friends have admired it for years, but Anne and I knew in our hearts we had only done 75% of the walk. To us there was always a slight misgiving that ours was only a 'part achievement.'
So here we were in February 2010 and back on a launch in pouring rain chugging across a misty, haunting Lake Te Anau to again take on the Milford Track.
This time we were grimly determined that the daunting MacKinnon Pass, with its cruel 11 'zigs' and 'zags' and the four hour rocky climb to the top, which we had flown over last time, would be beaten this time.
On day two we could see its craggy face getting ever closer as
we hiked towards it alongside the picturesque Clinton River.
On the walk this time we were with 48 others.
Our group was wonderfully international; 15 Americans, 15
Aussies, 4 Canadians, 3 Japanese, 2 Kenyan-Indian Brits, a
Dutch-Czech couple, and just seven kiwis, including the my wife's
brother-in-law, the newly-retired teacher Terry Lord of
Auckland.
Ecletic group
We had an age spread from the late 20s through to the 70s and an eclectic group which included a surgeon, a psychologist, a top business writer, a retired army officer, a squash coach and his wife (on their honeymoon).
Apart from us the kiwis in attendance were elite endurance athletes, Mark Struthers and Annette Windross plus her brother Graham Windross with his wife Kiri. I had the feeling they might have seen the Track as some kind of stroll in the park so quickly and efficiently did they pass by!
Among all the others was your shuffling sports reporter, usually found towards the back of the line, miles from the front, telling people he was stopping often 'only to take in the views of course.'
I should add, and I do so with delight that our guides, lucky us, were four bright, fit and beautiful females. Claudine Hinton was the leader along with Greta Shepherd, Raenee Wilson and Yoshie Sinclair. They worked long hours with deep professionalism and commitment and a very obvious love for the bush and the environment. On each of our three nights we slept warm after having had great three-course meals served in the comfortable sleeping lodges.
Basically we all had to tramp 33ý miles in three and a bit days (the old measurements are on all the marker poles along the way). To put it another way that is 54 kilometres. The journey is both superbly scenic as well as being, in parts, grimly taxing. One of our Aussies, a retired Army Colonel John Snare, whispered to me one day, 'Around every corner of this track I see a beautiful postcard view.'
Nothing could be truer on the Milford Track.
The ambition of Anne and I to conquer MacKinnon Pass came on day
three. The first day was the lake journey and a short stretch of
the legs to the first hut. That was comfortably achieved. Day two
was a definite step up in effort; 10 miles alongside a river, under
a canopy of beech trees and rain forest. It was a delightful stroll
though there was a hint towards the end of tougher things to
come.
Click here to read part two of Quinn's adventure
