Department of Conservation Fiordland staff are relieved to be celebrating the reopening of two Great Walks in the region, after a race against time to get the tracks repaired before the summer tramping season.

The 53km Milford Track reopened last week, huts are fully booked and 40 visitors a day are passing through Te Anau to begin their five day Fiordland National Park tramping adventure.

The 33km Routeburn Track through the Mt Aspiring and Fiordland national parks opened today, with huts also solidly booked for the season.

Advertisement

Advertise on the Southland App

Department of Conservation principal ranger recreational/historic Grant Tremain said contractors had done a great job getting the tracks ready on time.

“Contractors were still blasting in the Arthur Valley in the week prior to opening,” he said.

It had been “a pretty big relief, logistically” and staff were pleased to see trampers now making their presence felt in Te Anau.

“The Kepler has been busy anyway and as soon as Milford opened, they have been a lot more noticeable in transport and in the businesses down the main street,” Mr Tremain said.

Huts on the Milford Track were booked out within the first couple of hours of bookings opening, putting pressure on contractors and staff to get the work done on deadline, he said.

“We were open on time. Our worst fear was not being able to deliver by the [opening] dates. There were literally only days in it, getting the work done,” he said.

Advertisement

Advertise on the Southland App

Tracks throughout Fiordland were seriously damaged by floods in February, resulting in an extensive works programme to repair and prepare the alpine routes for the summer.

Some minor maintenance could still be expected.

Big structural repairs includes a new 52m suspension bridge at Giants Gate on the Milford Track, while the work crews also spent nine weeks in the Arthur Valley repairing damage from seven landslides.

Meanwhile, the Routeburn track has been realigned at Lake Howden, with trampers warned to pay attention to new directional signs installed there.

Mr Tremain said a lot of work had been done at the Lake Whakatipu end of the Routeburn Track.

An unused bridge had also been removed from the damaged Hollyford Track and reinstalled at Twin Bridge.

Most of the flood damage on the Routeburn was on the Te Anau side, and the department had not been able to access the area for a long time either, Mr Tremain said.

“But now we are able to do a little bit of track maintenance and it is looking really good. The feedback has been really good from staff . . . . It is different. We had to put up quite a few bridges where they weren’t before and there are new board walks too. But there is a lot safer access,” he said.

Advertisement

Advertise on the Southland App

Repairs continue elsewhere in the national park. Work begins this month on flood protection project in the Cleddau Valley, focusing on Milford Sound and Deep Water Basin.

The Hollyford Track and the Marian Carpark remain closed. The Chasm Walk carpark is also closed because of the flood damage and more Department of Conservation updates will be issued regarding these assets.

DOC Operations Director southern South Island Aaron Fleming said from today, visitors booked on the popular Routeburn Track would be able to start at either the Te Anau or Glenorchy end of the track and walk through for the first time since early February.  

The reopening of the Routeburn Track was another crucial milestone in the flood recovery work, he said.

Mr Fleming said it was fantastic to have the full suite of southern Great Walks open and supporting their communities.

“The Fiordland and the Whakatipu communities have had a difficult year. Having these tracks reopened not only encourages people to connect with nature, but encourages visitors back into this incredible part of the country,” Mr Fleming said.

The Arthur valley in the Milford track. PHOTO: Supplied/Grant Tremain

The three-day February 2020 storm dropped one tenth of the region’s average annual rainfall dump on northern Fiordland between February 4-6, sparking a major search and rescue operation, damaged 440 km of tracks (78 tracks) and wiped out key infrastructure, including parts of the Milford Road. 

Lake Howden Hut on the Fiordland section of the Routeburn Track was hit by a landslide in the middle of the night on November 4.

The hut was deemed unsafe to repair and closed immediately. It has since been demolished and removed. The site was remediated and the track realigned.  

Mr Fleming said the department was working with partners and stakeholders on a long-term plan for the Lake Howden site.

The Government announced $13.7 million in its budget 2020 to for repairs to the destroyed assets and visitor infrastructure.

Advertise on the Southland App

Completing repairs across all damaged tracks in the region is estimated to be a three-year programme. 

The Kepler Track, Fiordland’s third Great Walk, was not affected by the storm and kept operating until the March 2020 Covid-19 lockdown.

It opened again as normal for the Great Walks season on October 27. 

DOC personnel managed the design and installation of the five new bridges on the track between Lake Howden and Lake Mackenzie Hut.

The contractors included WestReef Services, which has been on site since September; Abseil Access, which rebuilt a key suspension bridge; Glacier Southern Lake Helicopters, which removed Lake Howden Hut in November; Te Anau Earthworks Ltd, which repaired the Divide slip; and John Henderson Construction Ltd, which did repairs in the Mt Aspiring National Park.