The Milford Track
Four days up one valley, over a pass and down the next, to the sea at Milford
The Milford Track walks the length of two of Fiordland's glacier valleys and crosses the pass between them. Walkers come for beech forest hung with moss, a river of clear green water, valley walls that stream with water after rain, and Sutherland Falls dropping 580 metres in three leaps. At the far end a boat carries them out to Milford Sound. A London editor called it the finest walk in the world in 1908, and the Department of Conservation has used the phrase ever since.
What it asks for is planning more than strength. The track runs one way only, over four days and three nights, with a booked bunk in each of three huts and a boat at each end. The days are moderate except the third, which crosses the pass. It suits anyone who can walk six to seven hours a day on formed track carrying a pack, with one long climb and descent; DOC does not recommend it for children under 10.
How this page was madeWe have not walked the Milford Track. This page is researched from the Department of Conservation and other published sources, named at the foot of the page, and what walkers say of it is theirs, reported and attributed. If we walk it, we will say so here.
Last updated 5 November 2026
The route
The track follows a line ice cut long before anyone walked it. From the head of Lake Te Anau it climbs the Clinton valley, flat-floored and closed in by walls of rock. It crosses the divide at Omanui / McKinnon Pass and descends the Arthur valley to Sandfly Point on Milford Sound. There is no road at either end. Walkers arrive by boat and leave by boat.
Everyone walks it south to north, and everyone spends the first night at Clinton Hut. Walkers move together, one hut a night, which is why each bunk is booked for a named night.
The commitment point is the pass. Once over the top, the way out is forward, down the Arthur valley to the boat. That is why the forecast at Mintaro, the night before, matters more than any other.
What the walking is like
For most of its length this is valley walking: level or gently rising, on a formed path, under beech forest that opens now and then onto river flats and views of the walls above. The Clinton River runs beside the first two days. Birds are part of it too: Blanche Baughan, walking it in 1908, wrote of tūī, kākā and weka, and of moss and ferns over everything.
Then there is the rain. Fiordland takes up to 9,000 millimetres a year, and Tourism New Zealand reckons on rain about 200 days in 365. Walkers' accounts treat it as part of the walk rather than a spoiler of it: after heavy rain the valley walls run with waterfalls that are not there in dry weather. The price is wet boots, a cloud-filled pass on some days, and the sandflies, which find anyone who stands still.
The third day changes the scale. Between the climb out of the Clinton valley and the long descent into the Arthur lies the only open alpine ground on the walk. It is the one stretch with no trees, and the weather decides what you see. Below it, a side track of an hour and a half there and back leads to Sutherland Falls, dropping 580 metres in three leaps from Lake Quill.
What writers and artists have made of it
The track's reputation began with a poet. Blanche Baughan walked it in March 1908 and sent the Spectator in London an essay of about 7,500 words called "A Notable Walk". Its editor, John Strachey, cut it to about 1,700 and gave it a new headline, "The Finest Walk in the World". The government reprinted it as a booklet, and the phrase has stayed with the track for more than a century. She later wrote that the track left her "amazed afresh". Read her before you go, and see whether the forest she described is the one you walk through.
At the top of the pass, 1,154 metres up, stop before you reach the shelter and turn round. You have climbed more than 500 metres since leaving Mintaro, and you may feel it in your legs. Behind you is the Clinton valley you have walked for two days; ahead, the track drops a thousand metres into the Arthur valley. If the cloud lifts, look for both at once and see what made them: one line cut by ice, broken only by the ground you are standing on. Then close your eyes and listen to whatever the wind brings up from below. You may feel how small two days of walking are against it.
The stages
Four walking days, with a boat crossing at each end. DOC sets the stages, and an independent walker cannot change them: each night is booked at a named hut.
| Stage | From → to | Distance / time | Character and effort | Services / overnight | Main constraint |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boat in | Te Anau Downs → Glade Wharf | 30 min by road from Te Anau, then 1 h 15 min by boat | A crossing to the head of Lake Te Anau | Transport booked from Te Anau or Queenstown | The boat time sets your start |
| 1 · Clinton | Glade Wharf → Clinton Hut | 5 km · 1–1.5 h | Flat, through forest beside the Clinton River | Clinton Hut: every walker's first night | None: a short afternoon |
| 2 · Up the valley | Clinton Hut → Mintaro Hut | 17.5 km · about 6 h | A gradual climb up the Clinton valley, open flats near its head | Day shelters on the way; Mintaro Hut | Heavy rain floods the valley floor |
| 3 · The pass | Mintaro Hut → Dumpling Hut | 13 km · 6–7 h, plus 1.5 h for Sutherland Falls | Over 500 m up to the pass at 1,154 m, then 1,000 m down | Pass shelter; Dumpling Hut | Weather on the pass; the long descent |
| 4 · Down the Arthur | Dumpling Hut → Sandfly Point | 18 km · 5.5–6 h | A long, gentle descent past Lake Ada | Shelter at Sandfly Point | Reaching the boat you booked |
| Boat out | Sandfly Point → Milford Sound / Piopiotahi | 20 min by boat, then bus | A short crossing to the road end | Buses to Te Anau and Queenstown | No road: booked transport only |
Six places mark the line: the wharf where it starts, three huts, the pass and the point where it ends.
Glade Wharf
The start, at the head of Lake Te Anau, reached only by boat. Walkers step straight off the jetty into beech forest, and the first day is short enough that a late-morning or afternoon boat is no hardship.
Clinton Hut
Every walker's first night. The short first day leaves time for the wetland walkway, a quarter of an hour there and back, and for the river. Day 2 then follows the Clinton valley north on a gentle gradient.
Mintaro Hut
At the head of the Clinton valley, below the pass. The night before the hardest day, and the hut where walkers read the forecast for the crossing.
Omanui / McKinnon Pass
The high point of the walk. Open alpine ground of tarns and golden tussock, with a shelter on the top.
Dumpling Hut
In forest in the Arthur valley, below the pass. The side track to Sutherland Falls leaves the route on the way down, so walkers can see the falls the same afternoon before the last stretch to the hut.
Sandfly Point
The end, reached down the Arthur valley past Lake Ada, Mackay Falls and the hollowed boulder called Bell Rock. A shelter waits for the boat across to Milford Sound and the road.
Planning the journey
Booking the huts
In the Great Walks season every bunk is booked in advance through DOC's online system, and walking without a booking risks a penalty or being turned away from a full hut. Bookings for the whole season open on one day in May: 13 May in 2026.
For the 2026/27 season the Milford Track sold out in 34 minutes, with a record 13,500 people online at the peak (DOC, 3 June 2026). Book the boats and buses only once you hold the huts. If you missed the day, DOC's advice is to keep checking for cancellations, which do appear.
In season a bunk costs NZ$152 a night for an international adult and NZ$106 for a New Zealand resident, NZ$76 and NZ$53 for children aged 5 to 17, checked 5 November 2026 on DOC's page. Transport at both ends is booked separately with the operators DOC lists.
The huts
Each hut has bunks, heating, basic cooking facilities and cold running water. Walkers bring their own sleeping bag, food, pots and utensils; there are no showers, and camping is not allowed anywhere on the track.
Guided or independent
The one other way to walk the track is with Ultimate Hikes, which runs the guided walk on it. Its walk takes five days and four nights, in the same direction, from November to April. Walkers sleep in the company's own lodges, separate from DOC's huts, with meals, guides and transport included and a last night at Milford Sound. It is sold as a package, and its places are booked separately from DOC's huts.
Walk it independently if you can win a booking: the track, the pass and the falls are the same either way, and the guided walk buys comfort and a separate allocation at a price.
— Andrew + MargaretSeason, and walking outside it
The Great Walks season runs from 1 November 2026 to 30 April 2027, with the last departure on 28 April. Outside it the track is unmanaged: there are no rangers, no gas, and many side-stream bridges are taken down for the winter. DOC then expects avalanche equipment, crampons and an ice axe, because more than 57 avalanche paths cross the track, and transport runs only when enough people book.
DOC's page is unclear about off-season bunks: one passage says no booking is needed and bunks go to whoever arrives first, another that bookings are still required at a reduced price. Check with DOC before walking between May and October.
Walking with children
DOC does not recommend the track for children under 10. For older children the first day is short and level, the second long but gentle; the third, with its climb and 1,000-metre descent, is the one to judge them against. Children pay a reduced hut fee, and the side trip to Sutherland Falls can be left out to shorten the day.
Te Anau is the usual base for the night before and the boat to the start; see our Te Anau guide.
If the journey breaks down
There is no mobile coverage anywhere on the track, and no road between the two boats. Carry a personal locator beacon, and consider a satellite messenger; in season, the hut rangers are the first people to tell.
The Clinton and Arthur valleys become impassable when the rivers rise. DOC's rule: for a heavy rain warning lasting one day, add a day or night to the walk; for a longer one, postpone. On the track, stay in the hut, follow the ranger's instructions, and do not cross a flooded stream.
Avalanche risk. It can last into December. DOC manages it in season, and walkers may be flown over a dangerous section at their own cost.
Injury or exhaustion. Tell the ranger at the hut you are in before you set out again, above all at Mintaro before the pass. On the track itself, a beacon is the channel for help.
Missing the boat. The Sandfly Point boat is the only way out, so set off from Dumpling Hut with the boat time, not the distance, in mind.
Check the MetService warnings and the DOC page for alerts before you set out.
A final word on the Milford Track
The hardest part of the Milford Track is a morning in May at a keyboard. Win that, add a spare day for the rain, and the rest is four days of walking that a century of walkers have found worth the trouble.
Andrew + Margaret
- Journeys on foot Journeys
- Te Anau, the base for the walk Overview
- Milford Sound, where the track ends Highlight
- The Kepler Track, the Great Walk from Te Anau Highlight
- The Milford Road Practical
- The Otago Central Rail Trail Journeys
Do I need to carry a stove in season?
No. In the Great Walks season the huts' cooking facilities include gas; you bring the pots, utensils and food. Outside the season there is no gas and a stove is required.