Today begins the first day of our journey on the Milford Track, recognized locally, if not internationally, as “the finest walk in the world”.  Coincidentally, it is also the date of Thanksgiving in the U.S., though our friends and family won’t be celebrating until tomorrow (their time).  This is definitely the most different way of celebrating the holiday that we’ve experienced.  We’re traveling in a guided group, which means that the tour group staff take care of transportation, lodging, and food, which is delightful!  There are very few Americans in our group, which seems predominantly composed of Kiwis, Aussies, and East Asians.

Getting to the starting point of the hike takes most of a day; the straight line distance is not too far, but by road, the bus travels around three sides of a square.  Even that doesn’t get us all the way there, so after a long bus ride we all climbed into a boat for the remainder of the trip to the northern tip of Lake Te Anau.  We boarded at Te Anau Downs, about halfway up the eastern side of the lake, and voyaged through the fog all the way to Glade Landing at the northern tip. Lake Te Anau is the second largest lake in New Zealand by surface area but because it is deeper, it holds the most water.  Unlike Lake Taupo, which is a volcanic caldera, this one was carved out by glaciers.  We’re on the edge of Fjordlands National Park, fabled for its steep cliffs, snowy peaks, and majestic sounds, and on a clear day the views would be magnificent.  We didn’t see much of anything today thanks to the low cloud cover, fog, and steady rain.  But the forecast is for more sun in the days to come, and this way we got to test out all our rain gear right up front!  The lodges all have specially-designed heated drying rooms for wet clothing and gear, so we can always start each day perfectly dry.

After all the travel by road and boat, we had only a one mile hike to reach the first lodge, so we’re not feeling the burn yet.  We did see our first wild ground bird, a weka, which scampered across our path. At first glance we took it for a rabbit but quickly realized it was something else entirely.  Another detail: as we all disembarked from the boat, we had step in tubs of sanitizer and also dip our pole tips to prevent the spread of didymo to the pristine watershed.  (We’re told that the stream water on this trip is currently clean enough to drink, and the trail managers aim to keep it that way.)

Our stop for tonight was Glade House, a lodge first built around the turn of the 20th century on a grassy meadow beside the Clinton River.  This is the third instantiation of the lodge, the first two having succumbed to fire.  As one sees it now, the large central common room is surrounded by a warren of bunkhouses, private cabins, and other service rooms.  It offers many amenities, including tea at 4 pm, a bar that opens at 5, and dinner service at 6.  There is also a host of board games, a guitar, and a piano for common use.  Susannah took a stab at some of the available sheet music, with great joy. They also have a small museum, containing memorabilia and historical photos from early days of the track. In one of the books on hand around the lodge, we came across a rather ominous-sounding poem.

The three-course dinner we had that evening could have been served in any high-end restaurant.  There were three main dish options, but the slow-cooked venison with cranberries in a red wine reduction was the star.  After dinner, the guides held a group introduction and ran through the details of the next day’s hike.  (We’ll reveal them in the next installment.)  While we were meeting, the clouds finally broke and the sun came out, bathing in golden light all the peaks we hadn’t previously been able to see. What joy!

Bird of the day: the Weka. Although we were chuffed to see our first, we soon learned that they are fairly common, and they tend to hang around lodges and lunch spots.  They move a bit like chickens and are around the same size but are much more fearless – the Kiwis call them “cheeky”.  We once saw one steal a bag of snacks off the lap of one of the unwary hikers in our group and drag it off into the bush before she could react.  One even pecked at Nick’s boot, presumably to see if it might taste good.