Milford Track Day 4: Dumpling Hut to Sandfly Point part of the New Zealand section on muellerworld

Sandfly Point is 18 kilometers from the Dumpling Hut. There's a sign in the hut that recommends allowing 5 or 6 hours for the trip. That means that if you want to catch the 2:30pm boat, you need to leave the hut by about 8:30am.

The majority of the last day is level. There are a few major waterfalls, and about a thousand minor ones (more, if it is raining). The largest hurdle is a 20-meter-tall hill along the banks of Lake Ada. There are a few lesser inclines, but nothing too serious at all.

There was a cool type of feeling in the bunkroom this morning and it had nothing to do with the weather. Of the 10 people that occupied the 5 sets of bunks, we could almost equally be divided into the snorers and the non-snorers.

It was pretty obvious who the non-snorers were. They were the ones making all the comments under their breath. I was well-rested and assumed that I had made quite a bit of noise in the last few hours. I was right. Tim made fun of me first, then his voice was joined by a few others that complained about me, a German man, Tim himself and one other. To his credit, I must admit that as far as I'm aware, Tim only snored before 10:00pm and not the entire night.

Breakfast

Breakfast was equally uncomfortable for a different reason: porridge again. I'm sure it has to do with the wonderful oatmeal I grew up with, but the stuff I bought in Wellington was absolute crap. It looked good in the picture on the box, it even looked good in the bowl, steaming and healthy-looking. Even the raisins and other unidentifiable fruit-looking stuff appeared to be pretty good, but it was just plain bad. The only reason I was looking forward to ending this track was to not have to eat this stuff again.

With that over and done, I finished my packing and changed film in one of my cameras. One of the younger German men was looking for Scotty the Ranger to have him radio back to the Guided Hut to see if anyone had found his grey jumper (fleece sweater) that he had left near the Sutherland Falls side track. They had, but he'd have to wait an hour for them to bring it forward with the group. He decided to wait for it, and then hurry along the rest of the track to catch the boat.

His plight got me wondering where my gaiters were. I couldn't find them anywhere, and finally told the Ranger that if anyone found them, they could have them. It was 8:30am and Tim and I hit the trail.

The sun was out with a vengeance this morning, but the first couple of miles kept us in the shade for a while. The rainforest was a little muggy, and the Arthur River was pretty beautiful. The bright sun makes for bright patches on the brushy floor of the forest, so I kept my camera in my pack until the MacKay Falls, 4 miles along the trail.

We were just early enough to catch the falls while they were in the shadows. The harsh New Zealand was starting to hit the left side of the bank, and made for an impossibly hard exposure, but I managed a few photos from the observation deck before the sunlight made it around the corner.

After about 15 minutes of taking photos of the falls, I packed all my gear up and crawled into "Bell Rock". The rock apparently used to be farther upstream, but was dislodged during a flood and rolled to its present position which is upside-down compared to how it used to be.

Way back when, the rock was the landing zone for a waterfall. After a very long time, the water had hollowed out the giant boulder, effectively making it an upside-down bell. The flood came along, flipped it over, and that's how it got its name.

Another interesting story about a name is the one about MacKay Falls itself. The story goes that two early explorers, Mr. Sutherland and Mr. MacKay were working their way from Milford Sound towards McKinnon Pass when they discovered this beautiful waterfall.

The conversation is reported to gone something like this:

"Nice waterfall."

"Ya."

"What do you reckon we should call it?"

They both scratched their heads.

Sutherland offered "Sutherland Falls."

MacKay countered with "MacKay Falls."

A coin was produced and a flip decided it. MacKay got this one, and Sutherland would get the next one...

Giant's Gate: Sandflies and Camera Problems

Two-and-a-half hours closer to Sandfly point is another great waterfall and a nice lunch spot. The sandflies were aware of this as well.

Upon reaching the Giant's Gate Shelter, we were way ahead of schedule. This shelter is about 90 minutes front he end of the trail, and despite a slow pace and lots of photos and talking, we still had two-and-a-half hours before we needed to be at Sandfly Point.

I was the first one to jump off the 1-meter-high ledge and make it onto the sandbar next to the outflow of the Giant's Gate Waterfall. You can't see the falls from there, but the view is still spectacular. The water was beautifully green and calm and the mountains to my right were lovely as well. I snapped a photo and noticed that I was on number 36. I figured I could eek out one more photo and clicked the shutter. I actually heard the snap as the auto-winder on my Nikon pulled the film out of the end of the roll. I couldn't believe I had been quite that stupid and greedy. I packed the camera away and ate lunch.

While Tim and I were on the sandbar trying in vain to avoid the flies, we filled up a couple of water bottles for some other walkers who didn't want to jump down to the sandbar. Jill and Bruce were climbing down just as we were off to check out the falls. Tim took some video from the swingbridge as I rock-hopped across the river near the pool at the bottom of the falls.

From there out, the rest of the Milford Track is a formality. Certainly not to say it isn't beautiful, it is. But the hard stuff is behind you and by now, I was craving a beer or at least a steak. We passed some minor trail maintenance that Scotty had warned us about, and made it to the Shelter at mile 33.5. We walked right past the shelter and down to the boat dock to see what the plan was. The captain of the boat said he'd be leaving in about 10 minutes.

We wandered bak to the shelter for a few minutes to shake hands and hug everyone that made it. A few people were brewing up a cup of tea on the stove when the captain came up and announced that it was time to load up. Everyone grabbed their packs and made the 100-meter walk down to the boat launch. Most stopped for a photo at the sign on the way.

Sally had pre-booked a kayak for the way out and her hunky kayak guide was ready and waiting for her. She was fortunate to have such a beautiful day for the half-hour paddle to Milford Sound.

The boat ride away from the end of the track was refreshing and non-eventful. The route took us down the end of the Arthur River and into the very end of Milford Sound. We got a first-hand view of Mitre Peak and the beautiful falls near the docks.

I was up on the bow of the boat and got volunteered to unload everyone's pack. Tim helped and soon we were walking through the bus/boat terminal and onto our bus. Unfortunately, he was leaving immediately, or we all would have walked over to a local bar for a celebratory beer.

I slept for most of the ride back to Te Anau, waking occasionally when we stopped to pick up someone or drop someone off. The bus serves not only Milford Track people, but people from the Routburn and Kepler Tracks as well as people just needing transportation from Milford Sound to Te Anau. The ride is about two hours long.

We had dinner at Kepler's Restaurant in Te Anau, then headed off for Invercargill, two hours away. Invercargill was booked solid, but Tim managed to find a small place to stay just north of the city. It was $50 for the room and the shower alone was worth the price of admission. The bed I chose was the softest, worse bed I have ever experienced. When I sunk into it, I was just about folded in half, with my bum almost touching the floor. I cleaned my gear off the third bed and switch everything around so that I could sleep without the sag. The third bed was much better.

Wednesday, February 14, 2001

We got up before 5:00am, but rested until about 5:30am, then cleaned-up, packed-up and left for the airport. The town of Invercargill was dead and dark, and we reached the airport before it was unlocked at 6:00am. There was a group of us outside waiting for the maintenance guy to let us in.

Finally, we checked in and grabbed a quick muffin before flying to Dunedin to watch the sun come up. From there, we flew direct to Wellington, and hurried straight to work, arriving about 10 minutes later than we usually do on a workday.