Hollyford Track – A walk in the park

Justine Tyerman’s tramping boots (TBs) think they are going to Hollywood… but she has other ideas.

In their excitement, the TBs misheard our conversations about the forthcoming tramp.

From the confines of their box on the top shelf of my dressing room, the word Hollyford was muffled and easily misinterpreted.

The flight on the Air NZ A320 packed with foreigners, and our salubrious hotel accommodation at the Hyatt Queenstown on the eve of the tramp seemed to fit their expectations.

It was not until we were collected early next morning by driver Cam who welcomed us loudly to the Hollyford Track guided walk experience and loaded us aboard our coach along with day packs, walking sticks and wet weather gear that the TBs realised their ear-ror.

Fiordland National Park

There was a bit of foot-stamping and petulance when they realised they were not bound for Hollywood but by the time we reached the start of the track in the Fiordland National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Wilderness area, they had untangled their laces and got themselves sorted out.

Being pragmatic adaptable Kiwis, the TBs made a quick reassessment of the situation and recalled that last time they hiked the Hollyford exactly a decade ago, it wasn’t half bad. An easy-paced, three-day, two-night tramp with light-weight day packs, luxury lodges with gourmet food and wine, hot showers, flush loos, real beds with quality linen… and drying rooms where the TBs could hang out at the end of the day in cosy comfort with other TBs from around the world.

Not to mention an adrenalin-pumping jetboat ride bypassing the worst uppy-downy part of the track and a breathtaking helicopter flight out to Milford Sound at the end.

Besides, the Hollyford Track held special significance for them because that was where they were christened in the crystal clear Hollyford River 10 years earlier.

We have hiked many a track since then but the Hollyford guided walk (owned by Ngai Tahu Tourism since 2003) stands out not only because of the spectacular variety of the landscape — a journey from the mountains to the sea — but also the fascinating historical, geological, botanical, ecological, zoological and ornithological context provided by mind-bogglingly knowledgeable, ruggedly handsome guides. Even the TBs with little interest in such topics, were enthralled by stories told by senior wilderness guide Graeme Scott whose passion for his subject, especially botany, was infectious.

The 43km low-altitude, largely flat track begins beyond Gunn’s Camp 100km from Te Anau, and meanders along a glacier-hewn valley through vivid green ancient beech and fern forests beside the Hollyford River. On day one, swing bridges take hikers over sidestreams issuing from thunderous, foaming cascades like the exquisite Hidden Falls and Little Homer Falls (60m).

After a picnic lunch on a sunny, stony beach beside the Hollyford River, with the Darren Mountains towering above us, we climbed to the track’s highest point at Little Homer Saddle, all of 168m. The TBs thought it was a doddle and cracked in-jokes with the other TBs about not needing oxygen to summit that one.

Fiordland’s highest mountain, the lofty snow-capped Mt Tutoko (2746m), named after an important Maori chief in the area, was visible from the top of the saddle, peeking through a cloud shroud.

That evening we watched Graeme fed a family of huge eels fighting each other for our left-over venison in a nearby pool, and visited a glow-worm colony whose little lights were so bright they competed with the star-studded canopy above us.

The second day started with an easy walk to Lake Alabaster where the term mirror lake was obviously coined. Wisps of diaphanous mist veiled the mountains giving the place an ethereal beauty.

The lake was an important place for early Maori who used it as a waka-building centre, Graeme said. They felled logs into the lake, cut off the branches and spun them in the water for several weeks until they were water-logged and achieved a natural balance. The logs were then taken across Lake McKerrow to a village where they were hollowed out and fitted with outriggers and sails. The vessels were fast. Captain James Cook once recorded that a waka paddled by four Maori men passed his cutter at a great rate of knots.

We walked across Pyke River on Fiordland’s longest swing bridge — exceptionally high and swingy — to view the start of the tortuous 20km Demon Trail, so-named for very good reason.

After stumbling over gnarly roots and rocks for a few metres, we were happy to jump in the jetboat with driver Jesse and bypass the dreaded Demon, whizzing down the rapids of the Upper Hollyford River and along the satin waters of Lake McKerrow to historic Jamestown.

Standing by a small plaque at the centre of where the ill-planned settlement once stood, Graeme explained Jamestown, founded in 1870, was supposed to become the capital of the South Island.

He told us heartbreaking stories of years of deprivation as promised coastal supply ships sank or bypassed Jamestown due to foul weather and the treacherous Hollyford bar; a mother giving birth alone at night in a fierce Fiordland storm with flood waters lapping at her bed while her husband rowed and ran for help; the same woman and her husband slashing a trail through dense bush for days to reach a cow to feed her infant only to find the animal had gone dry; and parents who lost five of their seven children at Martins Bay.

We also heard about the legendary Davey Gunn, “the Trampers’ Friend”, a larger-than-life bushman and cattle farmer who began guiding guests through the valley on horseback as part of his cattle musters in the 1930s.
Davey became a hero on December 30, 1936 when a light plane crashed into the sea at Big Bay, injuring the pilot and five passengers, one of whom died soon afterwards. Davey ran and rowed for 20 hours to fetch help, a 90km journey that would normally take four days. He was awarded the King George VI Coronation Medal for his heroic deed.
Davey died tragically on Christmas Day in 1955 while crossing the Hollyford River on horseback with a 12-year-old boy seated behind him. The horse stumbled and both riders drowned. His body was never found and there was talk he had run off to Las Vegas with one of his many female admirers.

Late on day two, we emerged from the podocarp forest of giant rimu, totara, kahikatea and rata, at Martins Bay to the deafening sound of the Tasman Sea pounding the remote West Coast beach.

A colony of fur seals inhabits Long Reef, the exposed headlands at the northern end of Martins Bay. The TBs showed off their rock-hopping prowess as we ventured out to see the young seals playing in pools, sheltered from the ferocious waves by house-sized boulders. Graeme warned us not to pup-nap the appealing liquid-eyed babies who were happy to pose for close-ups. The other residents of Long Reef, the rare Fiordland crested penguins, were sadly elsewhere that day.

Our last day was spent at Martins Bay Spit, exploring the 8km stretch of granite- sand beach and surreal, storm-blasted sand dunes. The area had been subjected to extraordinarily violent weather, and possibly a tsunami in the 1700s. We saw evidence of Maori fire sites, umu (earth ovens), and middens (rubbish dumps) dating back hundreds of years. In ancient times, the kilometre-high glacier that carved the Hollyford Valley stretched 10km out to sea from where we stood.

After three days, we had built up an impressive compendium of the botanical, Maori and common names of hundreds of plants and trees and natural remedies for scurvy, insect bites, wounds, vomiting and diarrhoea, depression and even impotence.
Graeme said everyone should have koromiko or hebe in their gardens because of its exceptional healing properties. During World War 1, soldiers chewed the leaves to combat dysentery, and Graeme had first-hand experience of his son’s rapid recovery from a bout of diarrhoea and vomiting after chewing on a few leaves. It was also used for morning sickness in pioneer days. And because it burns very hot, hunters used it to cook moa. It will grow anywhere, he said.
Another useful plant to have dotted around a sandfly haven such as Martins Bay is the native flax which produces a black jelly at the base of the plant, an effective remedy for insect bites, heat rash, blisters and gashes. Maori used the fronds to make roofing, flooring, clothing and kete (woven baskets).

Cobwebs are also good for healing wounds and great for the digestive system . . . if you can bring yourself to eat them.

In the evenings after hot showers at the lovely lodges along the track, we sipped fine New Zealand wines by a roaring fire, feasted on salmon and venison, and enjoyed animated conversations with our overseas track-mates, lodge hosts and guides, cheeks rosy from a day of hiking.

At the end of the trip, we could have retraced our steps back up the valley but we took the quick and easy way out, a thrilling helicopter flight from Martins Bay Lodge down the West Coast and up the whole length of beautiful Milford Sound. It was literally breath-taking — I was on the edge of my seat, holding my breath, my heart pounding with sheer excitement for all 1200 seconds of the flight which took us close to world-famous Mitre Peak and the stunning Stirling and Bowen Falls.

The TBs decided it was better than any Hollywood show.

In fact they have already booked to tramp the Hollyford again in another 10 years’ time. By then they – and their owner – will be too elderly and decrepit to lug heavy packs up steep mountains and doss down in back country huts. Besides by 2025, they will have deserved another treat for their sterling service… before retiring.

Justine Tyerman was a guest of Hollyford Track.
She flew Air NZ direct from Auckland to Queenstown.

 

The Hollyford Track

The Hollyford Track is an easy-paced, three-day/two-night all-inclusive guided wilderness experience from the mountains to the sea, along the glacier-hewn Hollyford Valley by foot, jet boat and finally helicopter to Milford Sound. The track is 56km long of which hikers walk 43km. The low-altitude, largely flat track begins 100km from Te Anau in beech and fern forest, descends to coastal podocarp forests and ends at the sand dunes of Martins Bay at the mouth of the valley. Expert guides, first-rate cuisine, comfortable private lodges, transport from Queenstown or Te Anau, day packs and rain jackets are included in the price. Hikers carry a light pack with clothing and lunch on their first day and thereafter an even lighter day pack to hold wet weather gear and water. A maximum number of 16 guests provides for a personal experience.