r/Tramping

Hey,

Just wondering what kind of day you'd be looking at on foot from Goat Creek to Ghost Lake? I'm fast, ok with up, but the days are short and I don't want to get caught lacking up there.

On topo it looks doable, but on the day can be different, just want to get the food vs accom spend correct

EDIT: after getting to payment screen, they charge you $160 regardless. No saving with using the basic huts

G'day! Just finished off a stunningly difficult yet incredibly beautiful and rewarding 8 nights, 9 days on the Dusky Track in Fiordland National Park, Dusky Sound. Completed the trek with a longtime friend and experienced trekker (I've done walks in Aus and Nepal but this was my first 6+ day tramp) and I was pretty surprised at how few people had even heard of the trek, let alone done it. In light of the lack of up to date information about the trek and considering how much I enjoyed it, thought I should put up a shortish post to encourage people to have a look and possibly book a trip!

General Trek Info:

The Dusky Track is regarded as one of New Zealand's most challenging multi-day tramps, and I can attest that its pretty damn intense, although very manageable for experienced and even intermediate level (but fit) trekkers. Located in remote Fiordland National Park on the South Island its a 84 km (one-way) route that typically takes 6–10 days to complete. You can do the 6-8 night walk from start to finish or you can do the 8-10 night walk which takes a detour to Supper Cove Hut, (the most remote hut in New Zealand, that you can reach on foot).

It crosses two mountain ranges and three major valley systems, so expect a lot of climbing, scrambling, and water crossing - as well as two, 1200m+ summit and descents. You walk through vast and insanely lush forested valleys, huge lakes, gushing rivers, alpine vistas, frequent deep mud, numerous three-wire bridges, river crossings, tree falls, and steep sections with chains for hand-over-foot climbing. It seems intense because it is, but mainly because you have to have your wits about you! The distance isn't that crazy but the track conditions and debris have you frequently off track and retracing. Its only about 8-15km of walking each day, and you're looking at anywhere from 5-8 hours of walking depending on pace, rest stops and weather conditions.

Weather Factor:

Weather is extremely important on this trek and its only available to do during summer and some parts of winter where weather is more consistent. Annual rainfall for the area is about 9m a year making it one of, if not the wettest place in the Southern Hemisphere - this means everything is generally always wet, or in the process of drying out. A lot of the trek follows the Seaforth River and various other water ways, meaning sections of the path can change depending on flooding and tide levels. If there is heavy rain for a day or days pre or during the walk its possible that certain stretches become impassable, meaning you will have to stay an extra night in one of the huts or backtrack to a hut if conditions become worse while you are in between hut locations.

Sunny weather is king, although light, consistent rain is pretty much guaranteed at some point across the 8-10 days and it wont pose much of an issue expect making the track slightly more hazardous and muddy. We did the trek at the end of Jan into the start of Feb and it was pretty consistently fair and sunny, with a few days of gloomy weather and light rain. This meant we didn't face any delays or serious weather events, and were able to take shortcuts across low tide water ways and walk along the river. (This can be the difference between a 8 hour day and a 6 hour day and is a real moral booster as the high tide routes are often difficult and slow)

Organizing the trip:

Costs:

Depending on if you're in NZ or not will change your travel but:

we flew into Queenstown, then got a bus to Te Anau (Te Anau is where you get picked up and taken to the start of the trek). You will need to buy a bus and boat ticket transport, which comes in a package from Trips and Tramps. This includes pickup from accommodation in Te Anau, transport to boat and boat to the start of the trek, as well as pickup via boat then bus at the end of the trek. This was roughly $400 NZD and is the main cost of the trip. You will also need to rent an emergency locator beacon from the DOC in Te Anau for $70 (optional but not getting one would be kinda stupid and dangerous) and 6-10x Hut Passes, depending on how many nights you think you will be staying. The huts are 1x Pass per person per night in each hut and are purchased from the DOC. There is a hut every stretch of the trek so no need to camp, and even if you wanted to - it’s a shitty idea as the ground is always somewhat moist and the sandflies are everywhere. Plus the huts are actually incredibly well put together, with a fireplace and 8-12xbeds (bunks with foam mattresses provided).

Gear:

Clothing:

Gear is pretty simple but also important to bring a few specific things, pack as light as you can, think about the essentials and weigh up if you would rather be more comfortable in terms of range of gear or more comfortable in terms of pack weight. You will need both warm clothes and light breathable clothes as weather can change quickly from cool to humid to wet to muddy to dry. I brought a jumper and a windbreaker as well as a light thermal top and pants, this was suitable for most days of the trek, thermals and shorts when it was warmer and dryer, windbreaker, thermals and long slightly waterproof pants for wetter and colder days. Clothing should emphasize ease of movement and breathability. I didnt bother with big waterproof jackets or similar as there is no way to avoid the wet, 5 minutes into each day and your shoes and pants will be nicely soaked. Cant give any tips for winter as it snows in some sections and man that would be hell.

Food:

Food packing is the hard part, as this is what can add a lot of weight to your pack. You also need to ensure that you pack enough for both your estimated time on the track as well as extra for 1-2 days, as you may want to/have to stay in a hut for an extra night due to weather or needing to rest the body. We took with us: lentils, oats, rice, instant soup, instant mash, tinned tuna, stock cubes, peanut butter, honey, coca powder, tea, mixed nuts/dried berries, nut bars, block of cheese, salami sticks and 2x freeze dried meals. In hindsight while the tuna was a great addition for flavor and protein I reckon it added like 2kg to my pack and took up a lot of space - go for stuff that is easy to pack and has minimal packaging. If you take the detour to Supper Cove you can very easily catch fish with a hand lure (blue cod) at the hut and so that did us over for the extra 2 nights we spent there.

Other:

Multi-tool with knife, camera and camera gear, sandfly repellant (natural/organic one), face and hand covers (for sandflies), book or journal (stimuli), butane canister (x2) pot for cooking and stuff for eating, lighter or matches, water treatment powder or straw (optional, you can just boil your water but we just drank straight from the streams and lakes or the tank at the huts and were fine) shoe glue or super glue, a medical equipment pack and a SAT NAV DEVICE WITH TREK ROUTE PRE MAPPED OUT (optional but I would highly recommend because while the path is marked every 10-50m with a bright orange triangle, there is a hell of a lot of tree fall and deer paths that will take you off the track very quickly and without any warning, we got lost at least once a day and without the sat nav it would have taken us double the time to find the path again).

Recommendations/Tips:

GO TO SUPPER COVE AND STAY 2 NIGHTS, FISH, HAVE A BEER AND RELAX - IT WAS THE HIGHLIGHT OF THE TRIP

Ensure pack is max 15/18kg. Mine was about 16kg and obviously it gets lighter as you get through the food supplies but MAN it was rough for the first 3 days. I would aim for 10-15kg if you can, I wore basically the same 2 outfits the whole time apart from inside hut warm clothes.

We left at 10:30 each morning and would arrive at the next hut anywhere from 3:30-5:30, that was a good strategy for leaving enough time to stretch and eat in the morning, you will need to stretch and prepare for 10mins to be ready for the day.

Ensure you read the hut log books, they will contain tips and up to date information on the track from other trekkers. Roughly 150-200 people do it per year and its mainly maintained by volunteers and trekkers so have each others backs out there!

Just keep in mind you may very well not see anyone the whole trek, we only ran into 1 person across the whole 9 days so get ready to feel ALONE!

Anyway thats it happy to answer and questions you may have. It was a pleasure shoutout South Island and how dedicated everyone is to protecting the national park and looking after the native species. Also for tolerating a couple of non native aussies.

Undecided on what dates my friends and I (3-4 of us) would like to do the Abel Tasman track and Heaphy track but aware they go live in a couple days and next week.

Are these hikes as busy as Milford, Routeburn and Kepler to book? We are thinking beginning/mid December. But unsure if this is something we desperately need to book when it comes out or we can wait a bit closer to the time.

Any thoughts and opinions are greatly appreciated.

If you're booking anything on DOC's site this season — Great Walks or otherwise — opening day can be tough. I run Schnerp (https://www.schnerp.co.nz), which monitors DOC's booking site 24/7 for cancellations, so I spend a stupid amount of time watching how this thing actually works. A few opening-day tips that aren't on DOC's tips page:

Each browser gets its own lobby position. When DOC's lobby opens, everyone is assigned a random queue position — and each browser counts separately. Open the booking site in Chrome, Safari, AND Firefox; that's three rolls of the dice instead of one. Going with mates? Get everyone in the lobby. Whoever gets through first books for the group.

Being early doesn't help, until it does. Your position is random, so showing up at 9:14 vs 9:29 doesn't matter. But you do need to be in the lobby when it opens. Wander in at 9:31 and you're behind everyone who showed up on time. Log in 15 minutes early and just sit there.

Cart first, pay once. A spot is held the moment it's in your cart. If you're booking multiple nights, add every one before going to checkout. People burn precious seconds paying for one night at a time and watch the next night go to someone else.

Stick around 30–45 minutes after. The half hour after opening is almost as live as opening itself. Sessions time out, people change their mind, carts release. If you didn't get your first choice by 9:35, keep refreshing till 10:15.

And if none of that works, that's the gap Schnerp fills. Cancellations come in all season long — last year most huts we monitored had at least one. Set an alert and forget about it.

Hope this helps you get the walks you're looking for!

From your guys’s personal/professional opinion, what great walks would you recommend during the winter season? Me and a couple mates are planning a tramp, ideally one with an alpine hut, but can’t seem to find any suitable tracks that are somewhat safe to do during the winter time. Cheers!