Pompolona

Milford track day 2

After heavy rain last night we woke up to a wet but sunny ☀️ New Zealand. Within minutes of leaving the camp it felt like the views was already worth it and we did not even walk much.

Hundreds of waterfalls on every side of the valley due to the rain from the night before. The track had little streams everywhere, which I imagine aren't normally there. Basically running out of water was just not an option as you could just fill up you water bottle in any water stream, and the water tastes better than Bermuda rain water, plus it was ice cold, clearly snow that just melted.

The group really walked very fast today. We found ourselves at the back of the group not long after we left the lodge. This was quite nice as we had the track for ourselves most of the day. The guides basically split into 3, one at the front one in the middle (social butterfly) and one at the back, so we got to walk with Grace at first. She showed us a little relaxing spot with great views next to the river and we just chilled out in the sun and had a snack.

After lunch we were still at the back of the group and this time Kelly was the guide with us. He is actually the most experienced guide on the track at the moment with 223 walks on the track which beats the previous record of 220, he has been doing guiding on this track for 9 seasons now and still loves it here.

We were still walking along and heard the sound of a bell bird, Kelly asked if we would like him to call the bell bird as its a friend of his. Obviously we said yes and he started what can only be described as kissing his 👊🏼 and after doing it for about a minute sure enough a bell bird came flying closer and landed on the tree branch just above us and then 2 more joined and they started singing away. Absolutely unreal! As we walked away from that spot he said: "had to do a lot of kissing to perfect that art". LOL

We really paced ourselves well I think, as we got to enjoy every step of the way, like we laid under the waterfall and just drinked in the moment about 2km from the end just because we can.

The days hike started just shy of the 1 mile mark and finished just shy of the 11 mile mark so give or take 10 miles.

According to my gps watch ⌚️ I walked 17.81km at a pace of just under 20 min per km for the day which added up to 29,743 steps and burnt 4341 calories, not a bad workout.

The Lodge was lovely again, with nice comfortable rooms, warm water and laundry facilities with a drying room. After a long day of walking I am really glad we do not have to come home to a cold room with 20 bunk beds with only cold showers like the independent hikers have to endure, I am sure thats an experience in it self but one I am happy to not get. "Ek kamp graag in a chalet"

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