MILFORD TRACK

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26640, 10 December 1947, Page 6

MILFORD TRACK

POPULARITY INCREASED OPENING AFTER SEVEN YEARS Daily Times Special Service WELLINGTON, Dec. 9. “After being closed for more than seven years, the Milford Track, recently reopened, shows signs of popularity even greater than it enjoyed before,” said the general manager of the Tourist Department, Mr L. J. Schmitt, to-day. “Naturally, the track is not back at its best yet,” Mr Schmitt said. “’Large numbers of avalanches and trees can come down in seven years, but the finest walk in the world is beginning to look like its real self again.” . , Holiday traffic in that area promised to eclipse last year’s, when in the Christmas and New Year season over 300 cars travelled between the Tourist Department’s hotel at Te Anau and the camp at Cascade. The bulk of such travellers went on to see the Eglinton and Hollyford Valleys and the Homer tunnel. Milford Sound hostel was in excellent order and had been surprisingly busy. A steamer is now running 42 miles between Te Anau and Glade House and the Railways Department has a service on the Milford side of the Homer tunnel. Trampers can now do the walk from Glade House, past the Pompalona huts, over the Mackinnon Pass, past the Sutherland Falls and across Lake Ada to Milford hostel, returning by bus to the Eight Mile from which point there is only a four-mile walk to regular transport on the eastern side of the Homer tunnel.