Milford Sound Travel Forum

Hello again, some further questions about the milford track:
is it possible to go to 'Te Anau downs' by car, park it there, so we can take the boat to the start point Glade Warf (57 $), do the track (120$), take a bus back to Te anau downs (40$) so we can do the walk for 217$ pp, which is juuuust do-able for us... Question is actulally, can we park the car at Te Anau Downs? And second, are we missing some costs?

While we're on it, is it possible to combine the milford track and then do the routeburn track right after it (so not going back to Te Annau), or is this totally inhuman?

thanks

I have heard of people doing this combination. You must be very fit and have very good gear. Do you realise, even though it's summer, you can be caught in very cold and freezing conditions. Depending on what condition you come off the Milford will depend on how you deal with another walk right away. You must prepare so you are used to the steep walking (up and down). This is not just a walk in the park, it is a walk in mountains.
So it totally depends on many things. Also whether or not you will have to carry food supplies for the Routeburn on the Milford too. That will not leave much room in your pack for your survival gear and sleeping bag etc. The huts you sleep in are very basic, so are you prepared to have no hot water to wash for that many days, etc etc.
I have answered the first part of your question in the other forum :-)

just to get a good frame of reference about the thoughness of the milford and routbourne track:
we are used to walks in the alps & pyrenees: walk of aprox 6-7 hours, on altitudes between 2000-3200 mtrs, with climbing altitude differences in total between 1000-1500 meters. Also we have done multiple days walking with sleeping in tents (backpack weight up to 20 kg)

is this comparable with milford & routborne?

Sounds fine. I think you will cope well. It's a wonderful part of the world. Not sure about Routeburn (check the DOC website) but on the Milford you can't use tents, it's compulsory to stay in the huts, just in case you didn't realise that.

for everyone who wants to know, we'll do the milford track starting 29/03/07!

thanks all for information, i bet we'll come back to this forum in a few months for other nice new zealand information.

thank you!

There is a small hotel and back packers called grumpys at Te Anau Downs. This is only about 1km up the road from the boat jetty, you can walk easily to the jetty from there. There is also a car park at the jetty , but it is right next to and easily viewable form the main road so I dont know how safe it would be to park there for a long time.

How did it go? We did the Routeburn and Greenstone early March and got snowed on!!