It's often called the 'finest walk in the world', so I was excited when I booked my place on a trip along the Milford Track on New Zealand's South Island. The track is just over 50 kilometres long and runs through New Zealand's wonderful scenery. It takes just over three days to walk it and there are huts along the route to stay in. Only 40 individual walkers are allowed to start the track each day. This stops too much damage to the environment. It also keeps the track uncrowded. It seemed like a great way to spend Christmas while I was travelling.
Our group of walkers gathered in Queenstown on the morning of 23 December. A bus took us to Te Anau, then a boat took us across Lake Te Anau. The first day's walk was a gentle two-kilometre stroll to Glade House, the first of the huts along the route. The weather was fine – a little sunshine broke through the clouds. I introduced myself to the other walkers in our group. We had some dinner and went to bed early to be ready to begin serious walking the next day.
I woke at 6.30 a.m. to the sound of rain on the roof. Breakfast was at 7 a.m. and we set off soon afterwards. It's impossible to describe how heavily it was raining. Within minutes I was soaked. My clothes weren't waterproof enough, so water ran down my legs and into my boots.
We were walking along the valley of the Clinton River, with high mountains on either side of us. There was so much rain that new waterfalls kept appearing from the tops of the mountains. Every now and then we came to a new river created by the heavy rain. Normally I take off my boots and socks to cross a river. This time there didn't seem much point. My feet were wet already. I just walked through with my boots on, the water coming up to my knees.
We stopped quickly for lunch and then kept walking. The sky stayed grey. The rain didn't stop. We walked through more rivers and then finally arrived at the next stop, Pomplona hut. At last, somewhere warm and dry. Some of the group were already there. Others arrived later one at a time. We showered, put on dry clothes, hung wet clothes up to dry, and relaxed. It was Christmas Eve.
The next day was more of the same. We put on dry clothes and warm dry boots, but within half an hour, everything was soaked again. On this day we were climbing, up and over the Mackinnon Pass between Mount Balloon and Mount Hart. Back home, I have a special dinner on Christmas Day with my family. Here, it was a salad sandwich, in an icy cold hut at the top of the Mackinnon Pass whilst listening to the rain drumming on the metal roof.
After lunch, we walked down the other side of the pass. It began to rain less heavily, although it never stopped completely. Then the clouds began to lift. And then I realised why I wanted to do the walk. The sights were really special, the countryside was so beautiful. Before reaching our final stop, we took a side track to see the Sutherland Falls. After two days of non–stop rain, this was an amazing sight.
The final day was dry. We couldn't believe it. We still got wet – there were a number of rivers to walk through. But the weather was dry and occasionally sunny. We walked through some remarkable forest, all a rich green colour because of the wet climate. Finally we arrived at Sandfly Point, the end of the track.
A boatman was there, waiting to take us to Milford Sound.
'How was it?' he asked.
'Wonderful,' I replied, 'but a bit wet.'
He laughed.
'45 centimetres of rain in the last three days,' he said.
Not just the finest walk in the world, I thought. Probably the wettest walk in the world too.
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