Cheaper Walk Planned For Milford Track

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30897, 2 November 1965, Page 31

Cheaper Walk Planned For Milford Track

(N.Z Press Association) INVERCARGILL, Nov. 1. Competition could kill New Zealand’s famous walking track, the Milford Track, the Fiordland National Park Board was warned at its meeting at Milford Sound on Saturday. Mr S. Allen said this when the board was considering final arrangements for its Milford Track walk. The board, he said, would have to co-operate with the Tourist Hotel Corporation in running walks on the track. “The board must not compete with the corporation,” he said. Starting late next year, the board will provide a supplementary service on the track. People joining one of the board’s walks will be able to walk the famed Milford Track on a cheaper rate. But the board’s walk will not include meals. People walking with a board party will have to carry their own food and blankets for the three days. All the board will provide will be accommodation huts and guides if necessary. Three two-dormitory huts will be built by the board—six miles from Glade House, Minpara and midway between Quintin and the boatshed. The walk will operate only

one way, from Glade House to Sandfly. Walkers will be charged 30s a night. The chairman of the board, Mr W. A. Bowick, said the board had “more or less” been forced into providing the service by people who wanted a cheaper service.

Mr Allen said the decision to start the walk was one of the most important made by the board.