Te Anau

I start the Milford Track tomorrow and unfortunately the weather forecast isn't so good - then again it's never really good around this part of the island and it's raining heavily here now. There's a low pressure system moving up slowly from the South bringing cold temperatures and plenty of rain. It doesn't look like it's going to clear completely until Friday when I reach the end of the track. The good news is that I didn't start today. They were predicting that there could be 80mm of rain in the 10 hours between 8am and 6pm - that's about an inch every 3 hours! It's forecasted to ease this evening and stay light for the next 4 days. The other good news is that hopefully I'll have great weather the following day when I start the Routeburn which is an alpine crossing. The forecast for that leg of the trip is very sunny and dry as a high pressure system covers the area. It's a bit disappointing, but there's not much I can do because I already have everything booked (and the bookings fill up months in advance). At any rate, it's supposed to be beautiful even in the rain as waterfalls begin to run all around, but I'm not expecting any great photos.

I arrive in the small "town" of Milford Sound on Friday where I'll spend a night and hopefully wake up to clear skies and great views of the Milford Sound. I start that day on the Routeburn which will take another 2 and a half days. This is all one way, so I unfortunately have to carry my tent and stove even though the huts along the Milford have beds and gas cookers. I will be tenting on the Routeburn, however. With 7 days food and all the excess gear, it's looking like the pack is going to be at least 50 lbs, but I've gotten pretty fit by now.

Here's an article written in the NYT about the Milford track that I few people have sent me:

http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/01/18/travel/18explore.html

I won't be going on a guided trip like the author (they get warm showers and beer at the huts for the guided trip). Still an interesting overview. I do have the feeling that it's all a bit over-commercialized here, and it kind of bothers me that people can make so much money off the land, but so it goes I suppose. I'd really like to do the Dusky track, another trip through Fiordland that is much more rugged and undeveloped, but I think it's too dangerous to do by myself - in fact, I just read in the paper about a hiker who fell down a rock slope and needed to be airlifted out. In general, this has been the experience here; I've had to limit myself to the more popular, developed areas simply because I'm travelling alone. The people in the DOC office here kind of treat it like a business too - the woman who "helped" me today didn't offer any advice and instead just tried to scare me assuming I thought it was going to be an easy walk (although relatively, this is an easy walk). They're really much less friendly in the more used places here and this woman was particularly off-putting.

I think that as long as I accept the commercialization, I'll enjoy it - it must be popular for a reason.

Also of interest - I read in the paper today that the strange color of the sky down here in the South yesterday which I mentioned in the blog was actually caused by the smoke coming off the bushfires in Australia. I'm sure news of these has reached the States because it sounds like they're really bad. I'll post a picture of the sky when I get a chance - it was an incredible color.

I'll post in Milford Sound in four days if I can get to a computer, and, if not, when I reach Glenorchy after the Routeburn.

-Brian

P.S. I believe the 11th is the halfway point for my trip. The time has passed slowly at times, but seems to have passed very quickly when I think back on it (isn't that always the case?).