Glade House

Milford track day 1

A 2.5 hour bus ride from Queenstown to Te Anau, where we had lunch and another 30 min in the bus, where we caught a boat at Te Anau Downs to the Head of Lake Te Anau where the track starts.

It was only about 1 km walk to Glade House where we spent our first night.

It rained from the moment we stepped on the boat, till we went to bed, the guides however said it was perseputation and not really rain ☔️ by Milford standards, apparently when it rains here, it pours.
At this point I am so glad we took this option with hot water shower and a drying room for clothes.

We went for a little guided nature walk of about 1.6km and learned quite a bit about the NZ bush. Interestingly NZ never had any mammals until man arrived. Originally only has birds and most of which was non flying birds. The Europeans brought rabbits 🐰 to hunt but could not hunt enough to keep up with the rabbits breeding, soon they had a pest on their hands. Then they brought other mammals that was known to eat rabbits, but found that these catches birds easier than rabbits so their plan failed & it created more issues. Today NZ is trying to kill as many of these mammals as possible to save the birds. Everywhere along the walking trail there are traps.

A part from learning quite a bit we got truly wet on the nature walk, but even in wet conditions this place is gorgeous.

Had a very nice dinner and a briefing on the walk for day 2 before heading to bed for a good 9 hours and 20 minutes of sleep 😴.

Woke up once during the night because of the heavy rain, it sounded like there was a waterfall coming down on the roof of the hut. I don't think I have ever experienced heavy rain like this before.

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