by wayno » Sun 19 Jun, 2011 11:24 am
the track damage wasnt anything that made the walk any harder, just hte odd short section washed out or hit my small landslides or fallen tree's the track was quickly rerouted on the troublesome pieces, i was there a few days after the floods, was surprised how little damage there really was given the publicity, people had to be choppered out as much because slips on the milford road meant they couldnt get out from milford sound and some people didnt have the food to get them back to the start and all the track hadnt been checked by doc, so for safety sake they were choppered out. since the milford is fully booked over half the year, when they are letting people onto the track they ahve to control who can go where to make sure there are spaces available in hte huts, it can be the same for any of the great walks in bad weather. as for part of mount balloon falling off, i never noticed anything, was probably just a chunk of rock falling off, the mountain is so big its still there. its not uncommon for people to be chippered out when theres heavy rain for long enough the rivers flood the tracks to the point they become impassable. if people get held up for more than an extra day at a hut, running out of food becomes an issue for a lot of the trampers. so they bring in the helicopters.
from the land of the long white clouds...