Milford Track (Day 3)

Day 3 marked a bit more of an ascent up into the mountains. The first hour and a half was an uphill climb to Mackinnons Pass. The weather started out beautiful again but as we were climbing up the mountain, the clouds began to roll in. I thought that maybe if I hurried up I could make it to the Pass before it got completely clouded in but I was wrong.

I was a bit worried that the whole rest of the day would be cloudy now and it was getting very cold at the top of the Pass. Just as I was about to give up hope, our good fortune struck again and the clouds started to dissipate just as quickly as they rolled in. There was a big valley at one of the day huts that we didn't even know was there one minute then it was completely clear and beautiful the next.

The rest of the day remained nice with only a bit of cloud cover but mixed in with sunshine. The hike down was actually more gruelling than the hike up as we had to take an emergency avalanche route for safety reasons which was quite steep and scattered with ankle-breaking rocks. Fortunately, we made it through OK.

On the way back, we also stopped at another day hut and took a further hike back into the woods to see the Sutherland Falls which is the highest falls in New Zealand and at one time was thought to be the highest falls in the world (found not to be true later). We finally got to our huts after a gruelling day's hike. This hut had 4 separate bunkrooms of about 10 beds each. The whole group was in bed early tonight to rest up for our final day. We finally got some of the rain that we heard so much about but fortunately it waited until we were at the hut for the evening.

Another beautiful morning

The journey up to Mackinnon Pass

And the fog started to roll in...

At MacKinnon Pass but unfortunately covered in cloud

The commemorative statue at MacKinnon Pass

The clouds parted for a few seconds while at the top - I thought this is the best we would get

A bit of blue sky coming in above the statue

The fog seemed like it might start to lift

Mountain tops began peaking through

Me at the day hut on the highest point of the Milford Track

And suddenly the clouds lifted!

Dad, Mom, and me at the highest point of the hike

Me at the toilet with the best view in the country

Panorama view at the peak with the famous toilet

View from the can...

Beginning the descent

Beautiful views on the hike down

The clouds threatened to roll in again but it was short-lived

Beautiful Panorama

Down, down, down

Mom and Dad hoping their knees would hold up

Mom

Sutherland falls

The flightless Weka bird we saw along the track