History

Historic Milford

What today is known as the Milford Track was once one of the two principal trails, used by Māori, linking Fiordland with the rest of Te Wai Pounamu (South Island) for the gathering of pounamu (greenstone). The translucent Koko-takiwai, (bowenite form of Pounamu), found mainly near the entrance of Piopiotahi (Milford Sound) was favoured as it was softer and easier to shape into a finer quality product, such as hei-tiki. Koko-takiwai was transported by backpack over Omanui (Mackinnon Pass) down the Waitawai (Clinton River) to the head of Te Ana-au (Lake Te Anau) and by canoe to the head of the Waiau River and beyond.

Legend tells of the visit to Piopiotahi by the waka (canoe) Tairea. Koko-takiwai and her children, known as Matakirikiri, were left behind by the Tairea and were turned into the various forms of pounamu.

Donald Sutherland and John Mackay found Mackay and Sutherland Falls in 1880 and possibly also crossed Mackinnon Pass before pioneer explorer and surveyor Quintin Mackinnon.

In 1888 Sutherland and others were commissioned to cut a track up the Arthur Valley as far as Sutherland Falls, while Mackinnon was employed to cut a track up the Clinton Valley from the head of Lake Te Anau. On 17 October 1888 Mackinnon and his companion Ernest Mitchell reached the head of the Clinton Valley, crossed the pass and continued down the Arthur Valley on the track cut by Sutherland. 

Mackinnon was the first Milford Track guide and was long remembered for his good nature and ability at cooking pompolonas, a type of scone from which one of the guided trip huts takes its name. He ferried parties in his sailing boat Juliet to the head of Lake Te Anau, then up over the pass to Lake Ada, where another boat ferried them to Sutherland’s accommodation house at Milford Sound. Trampers then had to walk back along the track from Milford Sound until 1954, when the Te Anau-Milford Sound highway opened.

In the early days pack horses were used to carry stores to the huts. Beyond Pompolona Hut is a cleared area which was the old horse paddock and stables site. Old number eight wire and insulators visible along parts of the track are the remains of a telephone system, which linked the huts before radio communication was adopted.

The title “the finest walk in the world” first accompanied an article by poet Blanche Baughan, which was published in The London Spectator in 1908.

Today the Milford Track is New Zealand’s best known walking track, with over 14,000 independent and guided trampers completing the track each year.

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