This is a walk in a lifetime. Far from cheap, but ...

This is a walk in a lifetime. Far from cheap, but the experience is priceless, and there are sometimes places left as little as one to two months before. We spent 3 days walking the Milford track, a day getting there, and a day on the sound and getting back to Queenstown. The guides are incredibly enthusiastic and knowledgeable. There are 50 places a day in peak season. You don't have to carry food and the lodges are good to great. The star is the trail. Every other turn has a beautiful moment. There are bush robins in the valley, green Kia and Weka at the top of the pass, giant ferns, moss covered black beeches, hundreds of streams and two or three spectacular waterfalls. The western side of the pass is more obviously rainforest, but both the ascent to and descent from the pass are spectacular. You'll take a boat trip along the sound, which gets wild as you reach the mouth to the Tasman Sea. We watched waterfalls being blown back up the cliff by the wind. You do need to train beforehand if you aren't used to walking 10-13 miles in a day. Oh, and your walking group will contain people from all over the world. We met some really interesting and lovely people in ours. This was the highlight of New Zealand for us in a 6 week stay.