THE MILFORD TRACK | The Best Hike in the World (4K Documentary)
good morning friends welcome back to the channel in today's video we're beginning the milford track it's about eight in the morning here in Queenstown New Zealand we have a huge adventure in front of us so stay tuned. the Milford track is nicknamed the finest walk in the world and while that's a bold claim it's got a strong case for the title located in the Fiordland region in the southwest corner of new zealand's south island the milford track is the most iconic of new zealand's great walks to access the trailhead you'll need to book a boat through a local tour operator and chances are you're probably starting your adventure from queenstown where there's an international airport so you'll also need to hire a driver to get you the three hours to lake tejano where you can catch the boat up the lake and deep into the mountains and rainforests of fjordland national park okay well the adventure begins right here on the wharf and taeyanow downs behind me is the lake tayano in the distance you can see where we will be beginning the milford track first we've gotta take this boat shuttle here and we're gonna cross the lake way out over there and begin the track through the mountains to milford sound it's going to be super awesome and the weather right now is just fantastic weather forecast is it's looking it might be a little bit wet but i think we've got good luck and uh there will be sun and there's sun right now so starting things off on the right foot absolutely beautiful day so excited to get started fiordland outdoors is hooking us up with a ride across the lake to begin the track so stoked covering over 344 square kilometers lake tejano is the second largest lake in new zealand and the largest lake in australasia by volume most of the lake lies in the fjordland national park which at 12 607 square kilometers makes it the country's largest national park by far the milford track which begins at the northern corner of the lake where the clinton river empties into lake tayano has a long history for many centuries before european arrival the indigenous maori people traveled through the region in search of their precious ponamu or greenstone highly prized for jewelry and trade as well as hunting the moa the three and a half meter tall now extinct flightless bird maori called this land ata atafenoa or the land of shadows because the mountains here are so tall and steep that many areas are left in shadow for most of the day well that's the last engine we're gonna hear for the next four days bird song already real strong beautiful beautiful day like you could not ask for better weather right now so this is it this is the beginning of the milford track we're going to say goodbye to lake tayanow make our way towards clinton hut three miles up the trail and we're off the milford track is 33 and a half miles or 53 and a half kilometers long it follows the clinton river upstream to the base of mckinnon pass where it climbs from one river valley to another over a mountain range descending back into the arthur river drainage which it follows downstream until it empties into the ocean in milford sound at sand fly point the track has a long history it was cut out of the bush in 1888 by scottish born explorers quentin mckinnon and donald sutherland following the rough path the maori used each man in a small team began to hack a clearing out of the bush following each river upstream and meeting in the middle at the mckinnon pass a few years later once the two paths were connected the milford track was complete and quentin mckinnon became the first official guide on october 17 1888. the track has been attracting trampers and hikers from around the world ever since okay well we've just crossed the first swing bridge of the track past the glade house which is the first hut it's a private hut so on milford track there are private huts as well as the public huts run by the department of conservation we're staying in the public huts you can apply for your booking on their website it's kind of like notoriously difficult to get a booking but carrie and i managed to squeeze one in here at the tail end of the great walk season and so far so good okay friends well we have made it to clinton hut the first hut on night one of the milford track it's a beautiful evening we're in the clinton river valley and just surrounded by these majestic peaks so beautiful weather is absolutely perfect couldn't ask for better weather right now and yeah we're gonna go in there and cook up some dinner get an early night and get back on the trail first thing tomorrow morning but great first day on the milford track good morning friends it's a beautiful day on the milford track good night's sleep just had breakfast and some coffee and birds are all waking up mountains are waking up beautiful pink and purple in the skies absolutely fantastic it's gonna be another great day on the trail today we go from the clinton hut here up to mintaro hut i think it's about six hour hike i'll let you know all the mileage and stuff later but we're looking good weather's looking good and it's a great day to be alive perhaps you're wondering why one might decide to take this pilgrimage four days 50 kilometers no shower are you mad no we aren't a walk in the woods is a tonic to the soul and a remedy against the incessant grinding of modern life as the famous writer ralph waldo emerson once said in the woods a man casts off his years as a snake its slew and at what period so ever of life is always a child in the woods is perpetual youth one of the things i've noticed these forests down here in the land of new zealand they're very they're rain forests essentially and um there's a lot of rotting plant matter at the bottom they're very dense forests but uh it makes for these really cool beds of like lichen and it's so soft it's like tempur-pedic mattress you know memory foam sometimes you just gotta pull over and say hello okay well we're a couple hours into the walk now we just passed mile five so we're definitely taking our sweet time but there's no rush and that's the beauty about these great walks the huts aren't going anywhere your bed you know your cot isn't going anywhere you've got one of them reserved yep so you know you'll have one at the end of the night and i think it's cool to kind of walk down and check out what the riverbank looks like and stuff instead of just staying right on the trail and we also you know there's a guy behind the lens and he stops and captures everything for you guys as well so there's that we also have some nice little moments where we just sit well the best thing about this trail is that we're completely disconnected there's no wi-fi or service obviously so the phones are off but cameras are on from time to time but that's part of the adventure and the journey and we like capturing it accurate for people to enjoy it makes the whole experience feel really creative and adds a whole new meaning to it and you know landscapes like these it's just paint for an artist's palette it's so inspiring wow you can see a little bit of snow up at the top of that mountain amazing hello so we're taking a little breather and now you can really get an idea of how this place was made geologically this valley is the product of glaciation in the advance and the retreat of glaciers over hundreds of thousands of years carving out the rock it's mostly granite through here but there are some other types of rock as well it's just unbelievable when you finally get out into an opening like this little glade here and you get some perspective of where you are big places like this make you feel real small in all the best ways also it's very important to apply your bug spray because there are sand flies galore down here but if you have your spray on they don't really bother you all that much this landscape is shaped by an ancient battle between rock and ice while it might be hard to imagine the valley we travel up was scraped out of solid granite by a wall of ice over one and a half kilometers tall the sheer magnitude of such glaciers is hard to fathom in this age of warming but nonetheless the rock remains to tell the story all right we've stirred up lunch personally i think mountain house makes some of the best freeze-dried meals we've chosen to sit out here in the clearing because we have great views there's a glacier with waterfalls up behind us but also because in the breeze the sand flies aren't quite as bad that being said there still are quite a few of them but it's nice to uh to have brought the jetboil and you know all the huts they have gas stoves so you don't need to bring your own stove you do need to bring your own like pot because they don't provide cutlery and they don't provide you know pots and pans at the huts but in my opinion bringing the jetboil is a good move because you can have coffee in the morning because this also doubles as a french press and then you can have a hot meal on the trail with just a little bit of water it's a super scenic spot so we're just gonna soak in the views as our dehydrated food soaks in the hydration oh that looks good too i traded alex my beef stroganoff for chili mac and cheese we've also attracted every bumblebee and sand fly within a three to eight mile radius it's the blue i've got this bright blue i'm gonna have a blue backpack i've got like little blue on my socks i thought it was the beef stroganoff and the chili mac and cheese should we go swapsies can i try yours should we go swap these it's good i'm having that one for dinner as the kilometers continued we slowly ascended the valley diverging from the banks of the clinton river and hugging the sheer rock walls from which cascades danced and descended the misty mountaintops the gradual ascent rapidly became more pronounced as we entered the upper reaches of the valley where thick ancient forests engulfed trail that's the weka we just stopped to take a little break no breather we're surrounded by a family of weka birds it seemed like each time we took a moment to slow down to stop and sit in silence the natural world around us decided to come and say hello oh yes we made it mintaro hut looks like the local kaithyakis have been keeping an eye on us we've made it safely to hut number two it's a long day it's about i think about 12 miles but with a heavy backpack and stopping and starting for filming you definitely feel it but this is a new hut it's really nice and i am looking forward to taking off my boots and my backpack well it's 7 30 a.m we're all packed up and ready to go today's the big day we're going over mckinnon pass which is over a thousand meters high right now we're at about 200 meters so it's a big climb we go up back down the other side and then we're gonna try to do the d202 sutherland falls which is the largest waterfall in australasia it's huge uh just shy of 2000 feet well over 500 meters and it's gonna be a great day praying for good weather and good views when we get up to the top of the pass but you don't know until you get there slept well beautiful high here and we're ready for an adventure as we climb the switchbacks up the mountain fog engulfs us with each footstep we ascend higher into the alpine tundra that treeless wind-swept abyss where time stands still as the clouds swirl around us in their cold embraced i begin thinking about quentin mckinnon the scottish explorer whose name now claims this harsh mountain pass as well as the countless maori hunters and warriors who forged this trail through the unforgiving wilderness in time immemorial what will we be remembered by when our time on this planet concludes what will they write on your tombstone but we live a life worth remembering worth carving into the stone for eternity foreign warmed up had a hot cup of coffee and now we're going to leave the sanctuary of the shelter and continue down the mountain as we start to make our way down the mountain we lamented about the cloud blocking the magnificent views we'd heard so much about but just when our hope was beginning to fade the wind picked up and with it gusts brought an unexpected change it's strange how that works just when we want to give up hope to concede defeat to accept an unfavorable outcome if we just hold strong a moment or two or more everything and anything we've wanted and work towards can happen just like that so one of the other super awesome things about this trek is that the water here in the fjordland national park is so clear crystal clear that you can just drink it straight from the rivers the streams and the lakes don't have to purify it it's as clean as the water gets on this planet this surreal landscape was sculpted by ice and melting water cascading streams twisting and sliding down sheer cliffs in sumptuous scenes of unbelievable beauty the crown jewel being sutherland falls which towers above us at 581 meters dropping in three tiers from snow-fed lake quill into the arthur river it's the tallest waterfall in new zealand and one of the tallest in the world standing below the falls we passed like water here for a moment and then gone on our journey back towards the sea okay so we have literally been walking for 12 hours today they say this is a six to eight hour hike but between stopping and starting for filming setting up cameras walking by them coming back grabbing them taking the detour to go see sutherland falls it has been a huge day coming down that descend i tweaked my left knee a bit it's actually a knee that gives me trouble sometimes i think it's from just like competitive cheerleading to be honest is probably the biggest thing the only way is forward we're getting really close to the hut right now it helps to kind of like remind yourself all right we're quarter mile away let's do this that's how i'm feeling right now so i cannot wait to just take this sweaty clothes off put on some pajamas and rub my toes i think one of the things that you don't see in these videos as much are the moments of pain carry tweaked your knee my feet are killing me my pack is heavy that's just part of this and even though it's painful at times it's always worth it it's been a beautiful day and we're very close to the hut both carrie and i are really looking forward to taking the packs off taking the boots off and going to sleep i'm like not even hungry i just want to get off of my feet so we're going to cut it here for today we'll see you tomorrow on the last day good morning friends it's the final day on the milford track day four had a pretty good night's sleep last night here at dumpling hut and yesterday was a big day coming up and over the mckinnon pass but my feet feel great after a good night's sleep and we have a nice pretty mellow day today just walking out from dumpling hut to sand flight point it's about i want to say 10 or 11 miles um i think it's like and we'll be following the river valley right down to sandfly point where we'll be picked up and taken out and finish the milford track so it's a little bit bittersweet we have gotten so incredibly lucky with the weather on this trip it's been really beautiful and today is no exception it's clear crisp stunningly beautiful morning all the birds are singing and we're excited for another day on the milford track so let's get started so in case you're wondering this is what the inside of dumpling hut looks like yesterday montaro hut which is a little newer much nicer but i mean these little places are sanctuaries when you're in the bush it's definitely really nice at the end of a long day to be able to come into the hut there's gas cookers sinks with running water to be warm and dry and then cook up a hot meal so there are no hot showers there are no showers on the milford track at least not on the the public one you can pay for that if you do the guided walks they do have those but i'm a big fan of cold plunges anyways so every night i've just been hopping in the river and getting clean but yeah it's just really really nice so if you're wondering what the hut situation is like that's that's what we have how you feeling today so good what a night's rest we'll do game changer right game changer by the end of the day yesterday i was just like i think my knee's gone but no it's like it's back we're back are you excited for today should we get going yeah all right let's do it we're matching i mean we're always matching yay how do i explain the feeling of being in a place like this our transient travels through timeless terrain passengers catching fleeting glimpses of inhabitants whose existence is threatened grateful for the opportunity of just being here now how strange is the bittersweet ending of a journey in the wild emotions ebb and flow like swirling tides eager anticipation of the well-earned comforts of civilization the profound joy of completing something you set out to accomplish mixed with a sense of longing for your time in nature not to end it's as if we're battling the struggle of leaving our roots in the wilderness and returning to our lives in modernity we have just hit mile 32 we're going to mile 33.5 and it's feeling really good we had a little rest
we took our boots off gave our feet a little bit of a massage because we're definitely feeling it but once you get towards the end especially like this time right now it's where you kind of get a little pep in your step because you know you're close now it's time to check on and get on the boat and go take a hot shower and have some real food pretty soon we're in the home stretch but it's just been really nice we're taking our time we've had a couple of little rests little breathers take the boots off and just sit in the forest and listen to the bird song just really soak up the last couple of hours of this experience it's been really fantastic and i'm excited to finish because i want to get the pack off and get cleaned up and have some real food but i also don't want it to finish so we're really milking the experience for the most we can that's it friends we did it we made it that's a milford track that's right what do we learn on an adventure like this perhaps we don't learn anything we didn't already know we're just reminded of this ancient knowledge that lives deep within all of us the knowledge that we are a part of this world not apart from it that we are as home in the forests mountains and streams as we are in our apartments condos and houses that we need to protect the wild places that remain if only to remind us of who we are in an age where so few of us remember to reconnect with the ancient identities within our ancestors of the alpine forebearers of the forest mothers of the mountains and relatives of the rivers we journey into the wild to find the person who lives within us all the children of the forest and the sun thank you for watching my film and joining us on this journey of discovery if you enjoyed it please do me a favor click the like button make sure you're subscribed to my channel and leave a comment in the comment section if you'd like to directly support more adventure films and content like this please consider donating with a super thanks i sincerely appreciate all donations of any size once again thank you for watching and i'll see you very soon in the next adventure peace
2022-05-07 01:19
