Our last morning in Fiordland National Park dawned once more with clouds obscuring the upper slopes of the mountains. This is not a complaint: to have experienced four consecutive days without rain in a place where it rains more often than not is nearly unheard of. We’ll take a little cloud! All of the hiking groups on either side of our window saw much more rain than we did, and without clear skies the views from Mackinnon Pass would have been impossible to see. Sometimes when the rain is particularly intense, sections of trail become submerged and hikers have to move through water as deep as waist level. All of the hikers in our group felt extremely fortunate for the weather we experienced.

Most people who come to see Milford Sound do so by boat, and this morning our group joined them. Boarding the MV Sinbad, we took to the waters once again for a roundtrip cruise out as far as the mouth of the sound and back again. Along the way our boat tour guide told us details about the geology, history, and biology of the sound. Since it had not rained in four days, many of the waterfalls that sometimes decorate the cliff faces were not running, but there were still a few to see. We also glimpsed dolphin fins as they surfaced to breathe, and a trio of fur seals sunning themselves on a rock.

Following our boat tour, we all boarded our bus for the long trip back to Queenstown. The route passes through the Homer Tunnel before turning south, passing the landing where we began our trip, and retracing our path home. The Homer Tunnel was finished in the 1950’s in conjunction with the opening of the park, and was a difficult project. Besides contending with avalanches that killed several of those working on site, the miners discovered that the tunnel was filling rapidly with water as they dug due to its downward slant. In response, the dimensions were decreased so that they could finish the bore and allow water to drain. There had been a plan to widen it to the full original width after the fact, but as of our trip today it is still a one-lane tunnel nearly a mile long.

We stopped in the same rest stop for lunch as we had on the way out, and saw another busload of hikers and guides heading out on their own trek. We fear they are facing much wetter weather than we had.

We made it back to Queenstown without further incident and began the process of saying goodbye to our comrades of the last four days. We are especially grateful to our guides Bridgette, Harry, Sabrina, and Sophie from Ultimate Hikes, who led us with good cheer and skill, and seemed to have boundless energy. We struck up many friendships during the trip, and it was a pleasure to see familiar faces about the town as we ventured out in the evening. A toast to the Milford Track and those we shared it with; we had the most magnificent time.