What a miserable night’s sleep I had, and some of the people sleeping close to me would probably say the same. At some point during the night, the stuffiness of the hut caused a coughing fit that just wouldn’t let off. There was me thinking that Quentin at least, was sleeping through my splutterings since no water was offered to alleviate my suffering. As it turns out, he was quite awake, but couldn’t be bothered to be associated with me in any shape or form. Shameful! And that after only 15 years of marriage!
Anyway, after having suffered through the night, the usual morning ritual followed, further lightening our loads by finishing the remnants of our final foodstuffs. As per precedent set on previous days, we were on our way by 8 o’clock and today were actually some of the last people to leave the hut.
Our steady pace, general walking prowess and overall fitness quickly enabled us to catch up with the first of the early leavers. It wasn’t long before we’d overtaken most of the walkers in our group.
Although we’d always said it wouldn’t matter what the weather would be like on our last day, we didn’t mean that as a free for all for the rain to start pouring down on us. Not a proper rain, but a steady drizzle did keep us cool for the first four hours of our trek. After that, weather remained overcast and therefore pleasantly cool. Overall, not bad weather at all for a good old hike in the country.
The track mainly lead us downhill the few remaining 150-odd metres and although vistas weren’t as stunning as those of yesterday, we still had a most enjoyable walk. As is always the case on the last day of any hike, be it long or short, on the one hand I’m always glad (and rather chuffed) to be finishing but on the other hand I’m sad to be finishing. Finish we had to and as we’d been assured that there should be no problem trying to catch an earlier boat than the one we’d been booked on originally, we decided to try to reach Sandfly Point (guess where the place derives its name from) by 13:00 hrs which would allow us to take the earlier boat of 14:00 hrs, rather than the one of 15:15 hrs.
We didn’t expect not to be able to make that earlier time so didn’t feel the need to rush, or run as one of the members in our group felt compelled to do. We made it to the appointed spot by 12:30 hrs and feasted on our final crunch bar. The 1½ hr wait was occupied with chattering to our fellow travellers, whilst waiting for the remainder of the group to arrive.
Fortunately, the boat wasn’t fully booked so were able to sneak onto the 2 o’clock return ferry to Milford Sound. A short boat ride and wait for our bus took us to our luxurious 4 bunk “private” sleeping quarters for the night. A quick bottle of wine and a review of the pictures and video shot en route, prior to a most luxurious shower and 1 hr snooze, lead us to our dinner of fish & chips/burger with plenty of beer to celebrate our achievements.
We’ll make it an early night tonight as tomorrow’s kayaking trip has another early pickup of 07:15 pencilled in for us.
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