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My feet are aching with blisters. I'm wet, sore, and cranky, and we've still got another grueling day to go on our thirty-three-mile trek through New Zealand's Fiordland National Park. Still, I can't complain. Although each step in these stiff new boots scrapes more precious skin off my heel, I am in a soothing and stunning wilderness of moss forests, mountains, and mists, and the only burden I've carried through it all day is, well, my lunch. By late afternoon, I'll step into a freshly warmed hut, pull off my soaked boots, and have a glass of crisp white wine.
It's really quite amazing. Where in the world can you hike from a rain forest into a blizzard and back again during an eight-hour jaunt, cross vast landscapes of snow-topped peaks and moss-cloaked trees, and still spend every night in a luxurious abode with warm meals and hot showers? Only in New Zealand, on the spectacular Milford Track.
Touted by Kiwis and international trekkers alike as "the finest walk in the world," the Milford Track is a four-night, five-day guided hike that runs from the northern tip of Lake Te Anau all the way north to the Milford Sound, the heart of the glorious South Island fiordlands.
To keep the land pristine, camping is not allowed; hikers must stay in strategically placed lodges (oh, darn). The guide company supplies backpacks, bedsheets, rain jackets, all meals and snacks, expert trip leaders with fetching accents, and, of course, full accommodation in cozy buildings with bunks, flush toilets, and generator-powered electricity. If you're a seasoned pro and prefer to do some independent tramping, you'll have to bring your food and some gear, but toss the tent and the camping stove -- you'll be bunking down in other, smaller huts with mattresses, tables, and gas cookers.
Although the lodges are wonderful, it's always joyful to slip out of these snug shelters each morning and plunge once again into a landscape that is both breathtaking and slightly bewildering. Looming glacier-carved canyons are only a short hike from verdant fairylands hung with spires of moss. You'll climb from the Clinton Valley up to Mackinnon Pass, where the difference in elevation is so dramatic that as you struggle up the switchbacks, snow begins to gather on the ferns. You'll get drenched at the base of Sutherland Falls (the highest waterfall in New Zealand), whose misty offshoots resemble a horizontal downpour.
Each day, the air will be filled with the tweets of slate-gray robins, yellow-crowned parakeets, and perhaps even a furtive kiwi bird. But beware the cheeky keas: If you leave your gear unattended, these impish mountain parrots will unzip your backpack, scoop up your brown-bagged goodies, and in a flash be perched elsewhere in contented gluttony.
But the finest part about the Milford Track walk may be its accessibility to all. You don't need to train for a trek, or haul gear or consult topo maps. You just have to enjoy each day's hike, knowing your strenuous day will be well rewarded by a hot shower, a filling repast, and a real bed. Just one caution, though: If you're headed to the Track, break in those boots beforehand. I learned that the hard way.