Just in case there's been any lingering doubt over my "hip-deep in icy water" description of the first day of the Milford Track, here is photographic proof thanks to Dan, our Ultimate Hikes head guide.Yes, I know, you'll just have to take it on trust that the temperature was icy - but believe me, if George Costanza had been there, there would have been definite shrinkage.
We were just lucky, I suppose, that we missed the snow that came in a few days later when I was tucked up with my goose-down and big fire at Blanket Bay - word had it that there was helicoptering involved.
But on the other hand, I've just been reading about Malcolm Law, a crazy 49 year-old Kiwi who in the week before I toiled for four days to complete the 53.5km of the Milford Track, skipped along the entire thing in just under 10 hours. And that's not all, as they say: that was Day 6 of his 7 in 7 Challenge, in which he RAN seven of NZ's Great Walks in seven days, 360km altogether in a total of 66 hours. He was raising money for a leukemia charity, so I have to say good for him - but he does rather show the rest of us up.
At least he had the grace to report that "the descent [from Mackinnon Pass] was much harder on knees and ankles than anticipated".
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