Die sandflies, die!

G'day! (or night?)

Mauri legend has it that Milford Sound was created by a demi-god of some kind. The south he build the fiords sloppily, and this made the head god angry. He came down and shouted at him. From then on the demi-god took great pride and care in creating his masterpiece. When he was done, he looked and saw the best he had done yet, Milford Sound. So, he invited all of the gods to come and see his creation. All of the gods came and thought that it was wonderful. All but the goddess of death. She thought that the beauty would make men forget their mortality. Thus, she placed a curse over the sound. The curse of the sand fly.    
(This legend actually has the names of the head god, demi-god, and goddess, but they're really long, and I really don't know how to pronounce it!)

The curse of the sand fly still lives on to today. Captain Cook, writes about them. Early settlers were pestered by them. And they really annoyed us crazy Americans! We were driven inside by them rushed out of beautiful places by them. We couldn't even escape them kayaking! So, die sand flies, die!

Obviously we're off the Milford Track now. It was really awesome. 33.5 miles of beautiful scenery and fantastic weather the whole time. Not a drop of rain. But because there was no rain, we apparently didn't hike the trek. So we have to come back. Yay!

The first day on the track we took a shuttle to Te Anau Downs. Then we took a boat across Lake Te Anau. The captain even let me drive it for a while! Cool! Although Mckayla was scared that I would crash it against some rocks. After we landed we hiked 5k to Clinton Hut. There we met our ranger for the night, Ranger Ross. He was really super tall! He took some of us out on a nature walk and showed us some cool stuff. There was the lance tree, which the stem of its leaves are very strong and could be used as shoelaces! There was the pepper tree, whose leaves tasted like (guess what!) pepper. It was a really hot leaf! That night there was this guy in our cabin who snored really loudly. We all heard it. So we nicknamed him 'The Lumberjack'.

The second day we did 16.5k. The last bit was all uphill. And we were really tired so it was really hard to do. Our Ranger at Mintaro Hut was Katie. She was really funny and crazy.

The third day was going up and over Mackinnon Pass. First we did the zig-zags, which explain themselves. They took about two hours. Finally we were at the top. There was a memorial for Quinton Mackinnon (he found the pass obviously) and the views were great. From there we headed off down the side of the mountain. It was 8k to Dumpling Hut, all down hill. And steep. So the down hill was harder than the uphill.

The final day was 11.5 miles. We started out early and headed down the track to Sandfly Point. We were obviously happy about that name.We moved really quickly to get the 2:00 ferry over to Milford Sound (the harbor). When we got their we were tired, but happy to be done with the track. We did the 11.5 miles in 5 hours and 45 minutes. Including a lunch stop. Whoo Hoo!

We spent the night on a boat, but I'll let MK tell you about that in the morning. So now I'll just post some pics of our journey and then head off to a much needed rest. 

Waiting on a bench outside the DOC for our shuttle. My mom  took a picture here,  TWENTY YEARS AGO! 

Me driving a boat.

The start of the track. 

Sign for the Mintario Hut. Boy was I glad to see that! 

Crossing a river. I was spitting off the side. 

Apple doesn't fall far from the tree.  

At Mackinonn's memorial at the top of Mackinnon Pass. 

Top of Mackinnon Pass. 

Looking down the Clinton Valley. What we hiked the first two days and a half. 

Toilet with the best view in the world.  Stinky. 

A little avalanche we saw at the top. 

Avalanche zone. 

Morning of the final day. 7:30 am. I was excited about our destination in 11.5 miles.  Sandfly point. 

Lake Te Anau. 

End of the Track. 

Christmas cards. Don't we look like we smell good?