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There’s a good way and
a better way to do the Milford Track.

        You can walk the Milford Track inexpensively and independently as "Freedom Walkers" with your own bedding, without guides, without support, with adequate but minimal lodging without catering, using the public hikers’ lodges operated by New Zealand’s Department of Conservation (DOC). Because of the popularity of the Milford Track—over 14,000 hikers make the trek each year—you must reserve lodging in advance year round (camping is not permitted), from mid-October through April you may walk only in one direction (northbound from Lake Te Anau to Milford Sound), and you must do the walk in the required 4 days and 3 nights (independent) or 5 days and 4 nights (guided). Lugging 3-4 days of food and the cook pots to prepare it, plus a sleeping bag is necessary for independent hikers, and cooking, and washing up is part of each day’s independent hike on the Milford Track. Public lodges for independent hikers have dormitory sleeping for up to 40 persons only—no private rooms, and no drying rooms for washed or soaked clothing. The lodges have cold water only and no showers—just cold water lavatories and flush toilets. Lodges are staffed with DOC employees who are helpful and knowledgeable, but very busy with the chores required by handling 40 new guests daily.
        Expect the total tab for an independent walk on the Milford Track to approximate US$300-$500 per person, starting and ending at Queenstown.

For official information about "freedom walking" the Milford Track, see this .pdf document at the DOC web site: http://www.doc.govt.nz/pdfs/southland/greatwalks/Milford/Milford-track-brochure.pdf

        A better—if significantly more expensive: US$700-$1400/person—way for hikers looking to trek the Milford Track with convenience, style, and support is via the 5-day, 4-night guided walk offered by Ultimate Hikes of Queenstown. Guided walkers pay one price for 5 days of activity including bus and boat transportation from Queenstown to the Milford Track trailhead and the boat and bus from Milford Sound back to Queenstown. Three nights are spent in the comparatively opulent private lodges Ultimate Hikes operates along the track. Each has hot and cold running water, showers, some private rooms, washing facilities and drying rooms, lounges with snacks and drinks, and catered dining. A fourth night is spent at the Mitre Peak Lodge hotel at Milford Sound. A fifth day begins with a cruise of dramatic, steep-walled Milford Sound, with the chance to see dolphins, seals and other exotica, and stick your nose into the frigid cataract of one last towering waterfall.
        For guided hikers on the Milford Track, carrying food, beyond your favorite nuts, trail mix, or energy bars, is not necessary for guided walkers, because snacks, dinner, and breakfast are provided at all the lodges along the way. Guided walkers make and carry sack lunches from a buffet of sandwich makings laid out at the lodges before each mornings departure. Carrying more than 2 liters of water isn’t necessary either. Fill your water bottles with the water from any of the streams, waterfalls, ponds, and lakes along the track.
        One set of Ultimate Hikes personnel cares for the lodges, while another set (roughly one for every 10-15 persons of a group) serves as guides, traveling with each group. Typically, guides are young, fit, and enthusiastic outdoorsmen and women. Because Milford Track guests primarily speak English or Japanese, guides are New Zealanders and Japanese, but all guides cater to all walkers, and eagerly answer questions about the geology, history, flora and fauna of the Milford Track as well as concern themselves with the safety and comfort of their charges.

For full information, or to reserve a Milford Track guided hike, contact Ultimate Hikes at http://www.ultimatehikes.co.nz/welcome.asp or have Home at First make your booking as part of your New Zealand trip.

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Learn how to plan your own HOME AT FIRST journey of discovery to NEW ZEALAND

Home at First offers travel to Fiordland and 13 other regions of New Zealand. Visit 1, some, or all 14 regions in your own flexible, independent, custom-designed fly-drive itnerary. Minimum stay is 14 nights of Home at First lodgings. Home at First will help you design the trip that’s perfect for your needs, including lodgings throughout New Zealand, car rental, and all the air transportation you need. Home at First will even pre-arrange your New Zealand activities: from golf to fishing to hiking (like the Milford Track) to swimming with dolphins, to whale watching, to special rail journeys, and many, many more.