The repellent is to ward off sandflies, those annoying black bugs that are the itchy scourge of hikers in Fiordland National Park. The park, which is bigger than Yosemite and Yellowstone national parks combined, is one of the wettest places on earth. It gets an average 280 inches of rainfall a year.
And while there’s plenty of peace and quiet to enjoy while hiking the region, you may want ear plugs to block the sound of snoring from exhausted hikers in the huts that offer lodging along the Great Walks. The Great Walks are routes featured by the country’s Department of Conservation for their “diverse and spectacular scenery.” Five of the nine Great Walks are on the South Island.
The Great Walks are highly regulated by the DOC, which maintains the trails, checks for hiking passes and staffs the huts with nightly educational talks. The huts on the most popular Great Walks are large, clean cabins with bunkrooms. They’re a great way to be social with like-minded tourists and hear languages from around the world. I had fun teaching my bunkmates how to play an old-fashioned card-and-board game, cribbage.
One of the Fiordland Great Walks, the Milford Track, is a world-famous four-day route. Hiking it requires planning as much as a year in advance if you’re planning on visiting during peak Great Walks season, Oct. 27 through April 27. For other South Island adventures, though, it’s good to have some flexibility in your schedule as you’ll pick up tips on things to do from other hikers and from the knowledgeable staff in DOC offices throughout the country.
One excursion that’s popular with hikers is an overnight cruise from Milford Sound. The boat’s all-you-can-eat buffet is a nice change from ramen noodles and other backpacker fare.
The crystal-clear waters along the Milford Track make it relatively easy to spot the freshwater longfin eel, featured on an episode of Animal Planet’s “River Monsters.” Elsewhere, watch out for backpack-eating alpine parrots called keas. They are ever-present in high-altitude regions, and they’re not afraid to peck at human gear in search of food. You’ll also want to pack a headlamp, both to navigate the huts at night, and for taking nighttime walks to look for glowworms, which are what they sound like.
Other popular Great Walks include Routeburn and Kepler, but there are many quieter, less-advertised routes nearby to explore with fewer tourists, such as Dusty, Hollyford, Rees-Dart, Greenstone and Caples. If time is limited, many multi-day hikes can be broken up into day hikes or one-nighters.
The hike to Mount Luxmore on the Kepler Track, just outside of the quaint lakeside town of Te Anau, is a steep, challenging climb but offers spectacular views.
Farther north, the rock scramble for a night’s stay at the Mueller Hut is a must-do for its close-up view of Mount Cook, New Zealand’s largest peak at 12,218 feet .
On Stewart Island, a small island that’s a ferry ride or short plane trip south of the South Island, you’ll find another Great Walk, the Rakiura Track. Rakiura’s 20-mile loop has huts as well as campsites.
