We got the jump on dawn, rising in darkness to give ourselves a big head start on the final day. The plan was for Steve and Bryce to go on ahead while I did the washing and cleaning, to improve our chances of making it to the boat on time. The information given by the hut ranger said we could cover the distance in about 6 hours, but for us three the estimated times had always been well under our achieved times, and we had to make sure we reached the end before our boat ride over to Milford Sound left at 2pm.

I enjoyed trekking on my own, it allowed me to go at my own pace, and it was a rest from the child-like banter of Steve and Bryce that had grown on me in the same was the screech of a skinned cat might. Soon enough though I found Steve, but Bryce wasn’t with him. We worked out Bryce must have left even after I, but didn’t wait around for him; Steve was in a solid and stern mindset and he was making that boat no matter what.

Bryce did catch up, and we walked together for a bit until we came to Mackay Falls and Bell Rock where Bryce and I hung around to climb under Bell Rock and Steve powered on ahead.
We met up again at Lake Ada and stopped for a snack. Here too, as on the whole track, it was really obvious that the area was in a drought – the lake was low, just as the rivers and creeks and waterfalls had been. It was here that Steve shared a revelation with us. He had been making great progress all morning – much faster than his usual speed so far, and he attributed this to his realising that his paces were at the same rate as Bryce’s or mine, but they were much shorter in length. There ya go.

We continued on in the same independent manner, getting ever closer and making good time. The beautiful scenery wasn’t letting up though. We ate lunch in a lovely little pocket near the Giant’s Gate Falls, and soon after I stopped in a rockslide zone to get a 360 degree video of the path alongside the river wedged between two giants of mountains.
Not too much further along we came to the ‘1km to go’ sign. Buoyed by this we marched fervently on, and, after the longest 1km to go in history, we did actually make it to the final hut where we enjoyed a well earned load off and stuck into whatever food we had left.