After the now normal routine of sandwich making, breakfast and booting up we again were one of the first starters setting off on our final 13 miles just before 0730. I was a little miffed as someone had moved my boots in the drying room and they were just as wet as when I left them....however spotting this before breakfast meant 20 minutes in the hot air enabled at least the tops to feel dry and comfortable!
As we walked along the path,it was cool and cloudy but dry, and we had one last view of Sutherland Falls before heading off towards the boat house - our first stop. The early fast walking group of Masako, Jack, a young 17 year old who walked with his earphones in, Stephan (husband of Melanie the Kiwi who had set off very early due to being slow with poor knees - that said she did a good pace, made the boathouse first and was one of the first to arrive at the end) and us set off at such a cracking pace that Masako said we had to slow down as we would be there too soon - and the final terminus would not be open until 2pm. So we did slow a little giving Masako time to go ahead and get the hot water on for morning drinks - we enjoyed looking at all the 'rainy day' waterfalls which only flow after rain - and we have definitely had plenty of that! At the boat house the sand flies were rampant so were fended off with copious amounts of repellent. The females were clearly in need of their protein for breeding! After our morning break - the track still had surprises - the picturesque Mackay Falls( today's photo), often used in promotional New Zealand materials, a very rocky section which had been blasted out by the early track makers, and there were also sections punctuated by roots - the 3.5 miles before lunch definitely took longer than the much nicer flatter 3.5mile finale. Lunch was by Giants Gate waterfall but curtailed by sand flies who were again on the prowl. As we were getting up to leave Annabel steamed through - this was good news as it meant the room would be open when we finally got to the end.
It was nice to savour the last 3.5 miles albeit John had a tiger in his tank and was all for getting to the end quickly until I tugged his reins and we enjoyed the white water of the Arthur River and the ferns and beech trees of the rainforest. A necessity of the rainforest is rain and we can vouch for the west coast getting it's fair share but ultimately we had 2 dry days, one really wet day and a wet start so we didn't do too badly and we got to see all the faces of the Milford Track which was brilliant.
At 1330 we finally arrived at the end of the track, Sand Fly point, which belied its name as we were not plagued by its namesake. We had completed a total of 33.5miles - and arrived just after Jack and Stephan. John despite his apprehension made it easily and more comprehensively than people half his age; interestingly young Jack was 17 while John was 71 - the 54 year age gap was irrelevant!
Annabel had the hot water on so we were soon able to have tea and biscuits. She also gave us our room key for Mitre Peak lodge which was a very efficient use of time.
As time went on we waited with an accumulating number of others, and their 4 day walking odours, for the 3pm 'Anita Bay' ferry - eventually just over 30 of the 50 caught the first ferry, the rest, bar one, were on the 4pm ferry and our final member was on the 5pm - not a bad group effort.
Just before getting on the ferry the obligatory photographer popped out of the woodwork and took our photograph by the final sign! He was a bushy red bearded Welshman who had come to watch the rugby world cup and stayed! It was actually a nice photograph so we did buy it as it came in a pack with some photos of the track - including sunny days on McKinnon pass so we can see what it would have looked like - and three postcards of the picture to send home.
The sun was out and the boat trip to Mitre Peak was a fitting end to our 4 day epic - the boat captain said it was the first day for 2 weeks they had seen the tops of the surrounding mountains - we were lucky as they were beautiful!
Back at Mitre Peak we had showers, washed our clothes in the free to use washing machines, for which there was a friendly scrum - this was very useful as we can go to Tasmania with clean clothes and no bags of dirty washing. I was also able to properly dry out my boots.....as their boot driers were very effective - John made sure they were clean so they would pass the expected scrutiny of the Australian customs officers!
Finally we all gathered for our last supper together - salmon for me and rack of lamb for John. This was followed by certificates presented to everyone by the guides.
Our day finished with looking out of our bedroom window at a cloudless mitre peak and taking pictures as the last of the sun hit its slopes and the moon rose over it - priceless.