Milford Track, New Zealand...Day 3 Nov. 2013

Woke up to overcast skies but at least it had stopped raining. Put on the rain gear just in case but on the way up MacKinnon Pass we were alternately peeling it off and putting it back on again at the top then peeling it off again on the way down. This was the day we had agonized over because of the 1600 ft. elevation change going up. i was concerned about my knee and Art was just concerned in general. What we hadn't considered was the down side.

The Mount Cook Lilly's were blooming all over.

Below we were starting to move out of the tree line.

The Mountain Daisy's were every where too.

The view back down

And more up to go.

The trail was rocky.

 The early bird hikers had left before us from Mintaro Hut but we had taken our time trying to make the top of the pass by lunchtime. The clouds had us worried because the views were supposed to be spectacular but if it was shrouded in clouds it would be a no go. When we arrived at the top a woman who had been waiting up there for 4hrs shouted out at us hey you have brought the sun...and by God we did. It suddenly started to clear right as we arrived.

Those really warm hats were in the hiking gear kit we rented from Bev's in Te Anau

 Waaayyyyyyy down there was the problem. There had been avalanches so the main trail had been closed and the emergency trail which was practically straight up and down was the one we had to use. After it was all over Art said we went down 3300 feet which put a huge strain on the legs.

We all had the goofy hats.

But Yvonne ditched her's in favor of the rain hood.

 The alpine lakes were kind of surreal looking at the top of the pass.

 The Kea's below blend in really well.

We were feeling good and proud of ourselves at conquering the pass.

 Now we started down.

 But it went back up for a while.

Man that's a long way down.

 The views were incredible every where you looked.

 And we started to get hot as more of the clouds lifted.

 The down was really rocky and not easy to pass over...the hiking poles were a godsend.

 Not fun to climb down.

 It was quite tiring so we decided to rest right in the trail as being on the emergency trail meant there was no where else to go.

But the views were still spectacular.

 And the waterfalls impressive.

 The hated steps.

 Back in the trees again.

 Finally at the bottom and a look back at Sutherland Falls.

 I loved the mossy ferny cuts along the trail.

 And these guys were old directional markers with holes in them. Couldn't figure out what the holes were for.

The pics of Dumpling Hut didn't turn out...probably too tired to even care. i think so as not to bore you i'll save Day 4 for tomorrow.