Note To Future Self

I mentioned previously that the Milford Track is limited to just 40 trampers at a time (well technically, 40 people start each day… since each night’s stay is pre-set, you never see the folks ahead or behind you)

Actually, that’s not quite accurate. There are 40 “independent” trampers at any time. Those would be folks like us who are carrying all their own gear and do their own cooking. In addition, the Department of Conservation has allowed one “concession” (tour company) to operate guided walks along the Milford Track, also limited to 40 at a time. The guided walkers have “catered food,” and sleep in “lodges” with “sheets” and “hot showers.” It creates quite a class distinction.

I found we interacted with the guided trampers almost as much as with our fellow independent walkers. The guided lodges tended to be a couple of kms before the independent huts on the trail. Since we walked pretty slowly, we could count on the faster guided walkers (and they were plenty fast … they didn’t have to carry very much) catching us throughout the day.

Inevitably the guided trampers would start blowing past us in the morning, then we’d regain the lead while they sat down for their sumptuous morning tea, or some sort of six-course lunch on hand-woven blankets by the edge of the trail.

Probably the best symbol of this distinction was the above hut, found atop McKinnon pass, the rest break after the one long climb of the tramp. The door on the left was for guided trampers. I’ve been led to understand that room was heated, and had coffee, tea, cookies, sandwiches and fruit. The doorway on the right (no door for us) was a bare concrete room with a single gas burner. Sniff.

Luckily, we had to share the same loo:

I have to admit I had some preconceptions about the guided trampers. In a word: rich American investment bankers. And, admittedly, there were a few type-As (cough .. Germans) who used the guided tramp as a chance to go fast-and-light and blow through the tramp as quick as possible.

But the vast majority seemed to be folks for whom the accommodations were real enablers — older folks on their dream vacations and an unbelievable number of Japanese grandmas. Put in that light, the guided tramp seems much more acceptable, if it’s the difference between doing the track and not.

As a side note, the independent trip costs something like $200/head (split between the huts, and the before- and after-boats and buses), not including food or transport to Te Anau. It’s not a small amount, and rightly Kiwis are starting to complain about being priced out of their own country. Short of introducing two-tier locals vs tourists pricing, DOC will need to be creative to keep the Great Walks accessible.

After the fact, we learned the guided Milford track is about $1900NZD. Now that’s a lot of money. Yet if you were coming in from out of country, maybe not a native English speaker, but really wanted to do “the greatest walk in the world,” maybe it’s worth it.

Throughout our tramp, I was surprised when the guided walkers would refer to us independents as “Freedom Walkers.” At first I was somewhat taken aback at the decidedly civil-rights-movement term, until I learned that for most of its 100-plus year history, the Milford track was exclusively guided. It was only in the sixties that local tramping clubs organized “guerilla” tramps along the track, to insist the track, traveling across public land, should be publicly accessible.