New Zealand’s Milford Track being spoilt by tourist hordes wanting to tick ‘world’s finest walk’ off bucket list
Last season, tickets for the 54-kilometre track sold out within 90 minutes. As the hike’s popularity surges, locals fear that the pristine natural environment is being destroyed by people who care little for the ‘finest walk in the world’
Dawn is hours away on a cool Fiordland night but the packed bunk rooms of Clinton Hut are seething with activity. Hiking boots stomp against wooden floors, bunks creek as their inhabitants fling their bodies around, and an urgent, sleep-fogged crescendo of angry whispers is building in the gloom.
“Shhhhh,” hisses someone from a top bunk, directing their wrath towards the noisy hiking party who like to walk in the dark, the New Zealand bush enveloping them in a silent black cloak.
“Shhhhh,” hisses another low voice, from the other side of the hut. “It is against the rules to be so noisy!”
The day before, 40 strangers had set off from the tourist hub of Te Anau, full of energy and wearing fresh socks. Final coffees were guzzled at overpriced cafes and out-of-office signatures attached to emails.
In a soft, grey drizzle typical of this remote southern corner of New Zealand hikers of varying abilities heave 20kg (44lb) packs onto a speedboat proclaiming “Adventure Starts Here” for the 40-minute journey across Lake Te Anau to the start of the world-famous Milford Track, in Fiordland National Park.
Milford has become synonymous with beauty, a 54km (34-mile), four-day hike through beech forests, over glacier-fed rivers, and up the Mackinnon Pass, an alpine crossing more than 1,100 metres (3,600 feet) above sea level.
