Milford Track

Walk Overview

This walk is one of New Zealand’s nine “Great Walks” as designated by the New Zealand Government’s Department of Conservation (DOC). It is one of three Great Walks that are located in the famed far south-west Fiordland region of New Zealand’s South Island. It is New Zealand’s best known walk and always ranks high in listings of the world’s best walks.

The walk takes you into a region that has been shaped by the movement of glaciers over a two million year period. The products of the glacial activity include hundreds of lakes, 15 fiords (stretching up to 40 km inland), towering cliffs and U-shaped valleys. Accompanying these geographical features are dense forests of silver beech, mountain beech and podocarp.

The Milford Track has long been recognised as a fantastic walking route and an area of outstanding beauty, with tourists first being guided along the route in the late 1880’s. In 1908, an article in the London Spectator described it as “the finest walk in the world”.

The walk is a “point to point” walk, starting at the head of Lake Te Anau (27 km north of the township of Te Anau) and finishing at Sandfly Point in Milford Sound. The track is well-formed and easy to follow. The basic route taken by the track is north-east along the Clinton River valley, before a steep climb to the Mackinnon Pass (1,154m) and then a north-west descent to Milford Sound via the Arthur River valley.

The Milford Track is located in the Fiordland National Park, which forms part of the larger South West New Zealand World Heritage Area. The Fiordland National Park itself covers an extraordinary 1.2 million hectares, while the World Heritage Area extends to 2.6 million hectares.

Given its popularity, use of the Milford Track is quite regulated, especially during the “Great Walk Season” (approximately mid-October to the end of April). Camping is not permitted on the track and, during the season, huts must be pre-booked and the track may only be walked in one direction. A maximum of 90 people are permitted to start the walk each day and each of the DOC huts takes a maximum of 40 people.

Further information:

• A four day itinerary is described below.

• For more information on walking in the Fiordland National Park, click the button below.

Itinerary

The walk takes 4 days to complete. An itinerary completing the entire track is shown below.

Day 1

Glade Wharf to Clinton Hut

Distance: 5km

Time: 1.5 hours

Accommodation or Camping: Both available

Day 2

Clinton Hut to Mintaro Hut

Distance: 16.5km

Time: 6 hours

Accommodation or Camping: Both available

Day 3

Mintaro Hut to Dumpling Hut

Distance: 14km

Time: 6 hours

Accommodation or Camping: Both available

Walk Options

Guided

Due to DOC rules, there is only one tour operator offering the full walk as a guided trip. That is the operator currently granted exclusive rights to use the three private lodges located on the track. Other tour operators offer guided walking trips in the region that include the first day and/or the last day of the track, but not the full track.

The tour operator’s four day walking itinerary broadly follows that described above, though the private huts are not exactly co-located with the DOC huts.

Obviously, the guided, private hut version of the walk comes with quite a different price-tag to the DOC hut version of the walk.

The package offered by the guided tour operator includes:

• Transfers to and from Queenstown or Te Anau

• 5 day tour with professional guides, 4 days of walking and 1 day at the end doing a Milford Sound cruise

• 4 nights accommodation in comfortable private lodges (twin share/double or 4-6 person bunk rooms). There are 3 lodges along the track and 1 lodge at Milford Sound.

• All meals

• Day packs for use on walk

• Cruise on Milford Sound at the end

• National park entrance fees

As mentioned above, other tour operators offer guided walking trips in the region that include the first day and/or the last day of the track, but not the full track.

Assisted self-guided

Some tour operators provide self-guided services for the Milford Track. Typically, the service includes some or all of the following (customers select what they want):

• Information pack

• Booking service for buses, water taxis and DOC huts

• Accommodation at Te Anau/Queenstown and Milford Sound

• Vehicle transfer between start and end of track

• All hiking equipment/gear

• Walk provisioning

• During the season, the DOC huts include bunks with mattresses, running water, cooking facilities with fuel, heating, flushing toilets and a resident DOC ranger. Outside the season, gas is not provided (so no gas for cooking facilities or heating), running water inside the huts is turned off and there are no resident rangers.

Accommodation options in Queenstown and Te Anau are extensive but are limited in Milford Sound.

Independent

Given the very high demand, use of the Milford Track is quite regulated, especially during the “Great Walk Season” (approximately mid-October to the end of April). Camping is not permitted on the track and, during the season, huts must be pre-booked and the track may only be walked in one direction.

A maximum of 90 people are permitted to start the walk each day and each of the DOC huts takes a maximum of 40 people (the balance of the daily “starts” being allocated to the private hut tour operator). DOC hut places book out very quickly, so a decision must be made many months out. Mid-December to mid-February is the most popular period.

During the season, the DOC huts include bunks with mattresses, running water, cooking facilities with fuel, heating, flushing toilets and a resident DOC ranger. Outside the season, gas is not provided (so no gas for cooking facilities or heating), running water inside the huts is turned off and there are no resident rangers.

Essential Information

Access

The starting point for the Milford Track is Glade Wharf at the head of Lake Te Anau. Access to Glade Wharf is by boat (ferry or water taxi) from Te Anau Downs (which is 27 km north of Te Anau). The bus and boat transport necessary to get from Te Anau to Glade Wharf can be booked when you book DOC huts or a guided tour. 

There are regular bus services between Queenstown, Te Anau and Milford Sound.

There are private transport operators who can provide transport to and from the track for individuals and groups. Self-guided and guided tour operators also provide access to the track as do certain accommodation providers.

Park entry

No entry permit is needed for access to Fiordland National Park but for Self-guided and Independent walkers, tickets must be obtained for use of the DOC huts on the Milford Track. Tickets can be bought online and printed yourself or collected from the Fiordland National Park Visitor Centre at Te Anau.

Best time

While the track can be walked year round, the best time to do the walk is during the “Great Walks Season” which is mid-October to the end of April. Outside the season, the winter environment in Fiordland National Park can be very challenging, with ice and snow at the higher levels. Also, facilities at the DOC huts are reduced (eg no gas for heating or cooking and limited water) and DOC rangers are not at the huts.

Difficulty

This walk is rated by the DOC as “Intermediate: Great Walk/Easier tramping track”.

Accommodation

In addition to the DOC and private huts described in ‘Walk Options’ above, there are many excellent accommodation options at Te Anau and Queenstown. Accommodation options range from camping, caravan park cottages and cabins through to upmarket hotels and resorts. 

Milford Sound (the end of the walk) has a couple of very comfortable accommodation options.

Some of the accommodation providers are attuned to walkers’ needs or offer amenities suited to walkers. 

We can assist walkers in choosing the accommodation options which best suit their needs.

Other activities

As a popular tourism destination, the Fiordland National Park region offers many attractions in addition to the Milford Track. For one thing, there are the other Great Walks in Fiordland, namely the Kepel Track and the Routeburn Track (the latter being partly in Fiordland National Park and partly in Mt Aspiring National Park).

Non-walking attractions include jet boat rides, fishing, lake/sound/fjord cruises (Milford Sound and Doubtful Sound being the two standouts), visit to glowworm caves, kayaking, mountain bike riding and helicopter rides.

Assistance

We can assist walkers with various aspects of their walking holidays.