After arriving in Queenstown the previous late afternoon, we went directly to Kiwi Discovery to pick up our rental backpacking gear. We took the evening to pack, and had a short night due to having to take an unnecessarily early bus (06:45) to get to Te Aura, from where most things in the Fiords start.
The weather was already bad by then, rain and wind, and we had to get better rain jackets from a local rental shop and then wait for the second bus leaving at noon that would take us to the boat that would drop us off at the trailhead:
rainbow
our upcoming track
weather on the boat was already nice :)
thankfully it was mostly clear when we started
This wasn't a real backpacking trip because we were not going to sleep in tents, but in huts that had matresses, water, and cooking gas. That said, people for whom this is still too rough can pay way too much money to do a guided walk and end up in plushy cabins with showers, beds, and cooked meals. Bah, that's totally cheating!
Day 1: Glade Wharf to Clinton Hut: 5.8km, 1h34, from 200m to 230m
Day 1 was too short, just a short walk to the first hut.
the first stop for people who can't rough it even a little bit, was almost right off the boat
supplies get delivered by heli
this bird is shifty, hard to get good pictures of it
the robins are super curious and fearless
after checking me out, it came on my foot to look for worms in the holes :)
a ranger gave us a quick talk in the giant kitchen/common room of our huts
keeping warm
The evening, I went out to see glow worms:
see the strings
it doesn't look like much, but that's how they glow up at night. This cons insects into their traps
Day 2: Clinton Hut to Mintaro Hut: 20.1km, 6h09, from 230m to 600m
The next morning, the weather turned from bad to worse, we had non stop rain between moderate and very heavy. This put our gortex rental rain jackets to the test for sure. Views that day were quite poor and each picture meant getting your camera pretty wet:
very wet birds
moss everywhere
on the plus side waterfalls were flowing everywhere
snow and boulder avalanche path
Eventually all of us (about 40) ended up in the next hut, soaken wet:
each hut has a helipad for deliveries and getting staff in and out. That's so cheating :)
New Zealand Weka flightless bird, roams around a bit like a chicken
Thankfully the rain subsided a bit in the evening, so we had at least a bit of view
rain plus cold = snow
remember that this is like snow in July
New Zealand duck, quite pretty
finally, we got to see what our crossing the next day would look like
Kea, smart New Zealand parrot
Day 3: Mintaro Hut to Dumpling Hut via McKinnon Pass (1140m): 20.2km, 8h23, from 600m to 110m
The third day, finally weather was non rainy:
we're lucky we got views at the top
I happened to have some bird seeds :)
another kea
top hut/shelter for breaks or in caese of bad weather
the peak across had a few snow slides
A little fork off the trail was to see Sutherland Falls, the tallest waterfall in New Zealand. It's 580m high and a very powerful fall at the bottom. The spray at the bottom was enough to get wet from a distance and get your camera instantly wet as soon as you try to take a picture:
After a bit more of a walk, we got to our 3rd and final hut, this time without being wet, a welcome change:
Day 4: Dumpling Hut to Sandfly Point: 21.0km, 6h12, from 110m to 0m
The 4th and last day was smooth sailing. We had to get on the trail a bit earlier since we had to arrive at the boat by 14:00 to get back to civilization via a boat and bus.
this turned over rock could fit multiple people inside
fluffy
and after 3.5 days, we got to the end :)
boat back home
A few pictures from the boat and bus back home:
We finally got back to our room and enjoyed a nice dinner :)
