Routeburn vs Milford...

It is a tough call to say Routeburn vs Milford. The tracks are completely different. I don't think you can say one is better than the other. It is great to be able to both one after the other but, as you say, the Milford is less accessable and usually booked well in advance. So it becomes easy to choose the Routeburn. But that is not to say it is a lesser choice. In many ways the country is more varied and there are more views. Whereas the Milford has the spectacular glacial valleys and then waterfalls.

I hope to complete these tracks sometime. I expect they will be the last ones i do. Perhaps i'll be in my seventies or i'll have prosthetics or maybe all the people will be gone. I came close to the Milford once, overland from the Hollyford and Kaipo rivers but had to turn around and fly out due to flooding. They are popular for good reason no doubt.

aardvark: I expect someone of your callibre will be still tramping strong in your 70s. I have a couple of tramping friends of that age and they do bloody well. You should also consider the Milford in the off season. I have done this a couple of times. If you can fit it in before the first snow then all the better. You have to bludge from or bribe a fisherman to take you across to Sandfly Point at the Milford end and then come out over Dore Pass from Glade House. The track is wonderful when you have it to yourself. A few years ago a group from the Otago University Tramping club carried cheap children's inflatable boats bought from the Warehouse across the track. They then used these to transport themselves from Sandfly to Milford.

I think they are just as good as each other but different,mountain views-v-bush and flowers. There is one track i would like to do in the off peak time the Kepler can any one tell me a good time as i dont wont to walk through meter deep snow if i can help it Lindsay

Pmcke and Aardvark, which tracks would you actually qualify as a must-do please apart from the Milford and Routeburn ? With amazing sceneries and variety of landscapes ? Don't know how long I ll be in NZ for, and I do not want to leave with too many regrets like "I should have done that track :(" Thanks :)

You should never be leaving with any regrets. Some people will never even do one track and they'll never even know what they really missed. To have done any track means you have been blessed. Even if i were to keep visiting all the rest of my life i can never be sure i will visit every track. Perhaps like many of us you will not be able to resist the urge to return once you have left. No one track deserves to be ticked off and told it'll never be visited again. It may provide you with a totally different perspective the next time. I find it difficult to compare tracks for the very reason expressed by lgwaddel. How can you say a mountain view is really any better or worse than a field of flowers or a lake view? My preferences change from time to time though.

It's perfectly understandable that the authorities upgrade tracks with facilities etc as they become more popular and to promote those places in order manage the effect of the human population on the wilderness in general. Just as it's understandable that there will always be people like me who prefer a more remote wilderness experience. No doubt as humans keep increasing in number and tramping becomes more popular, there will in a few more years be 15- 20 'Great Walks" instead of the current dozen or so. Last time i visited the Rees-Dart they were putting in flush toilets at Shelter Rock Hut and the Dart Hut was twice the size of the previous one and many more foot bridges were going in. I was intrigued,though not surprised to find comments in Daley's Flat Hut regarding the mile or so of track leading to it from up-valley. It reminds me of the first kilometre or so of bitumen laid path leading out of O'Reilly's guesthouse in Lamington NP,Queensland. When arriving along that path from an off-track location some days away to reach O'Reillys that is often the hardest section to bear on the knees and feet. It just doesn't seem to fit in to a rainforested location. I'm sure it's great for the many foreign tourists who only venture a few hundred metres from O'Reilly's and don't want to get their bright white sandshoes dirty.

Pmcke:Thanks for your comment.I imagine i will one day take on the Milford track in a manner similar to that you've suggested. I can't see myself ever waiting in a queue to do it in summer. I expect the Kepler track is another i will probably only endeavour to do in the off season. Accepting of course the possibility of turning around from the tops if conditions have it corniced or avalanche prone. It would seem mid to late autumn would probably be best for these. I would always have a contingency plan if i were committed to a window of time and the latest reports weren't too favourable when i got there.

Hi Sonia, How fit are you and how much time do you have to spare on 1 track? For variety of scenery I think it is hard to beat the Dusky track and the Cascade Saddle traverse from the West Matukituki to the Dart. Neither of these are easy trips (and I woudlnt recomend to new trampers although I was new when I did the Dusky) and both are multiple days. The Dusky gives you Fiordland rainforst, rivers, open tops above the bush, lakes, and the sea. The Cascade Saddle gives you Temperate forrest, open river flats, glaciers, mountains, and open tops.