On January 2nd I went back to the Hollyford in Fiordland, but this time I was doing it in style – flying in by chopper. We (myself, my brother Mike and my partner Bruce) had booked a plane, but the weather was too bad for flying light aircraft (much to my relief). I was pretty stoked when they told us we’d be going by helicopter.

Helicopter from Milford Sound to Martin’s Bay – Bruce and Mike are already in the chopper.

We lifted off about 12.30pm and headed out into the Milford Sound. Even though the weather was inclement we still got some amazing views of the sounds and the Fiordland coast.

The start of Milford Sound taken from the Helicopter

The Fiordland coastline and bush from air (not far from Martin’s Bay) – it’s pretty rugged out there!

We must have been in the helicopter about 40 minutes – with it dropping us off at Martin’s Bay Lodge. Of course it had to start raining while we were trying to get ourselves organised with our packs and wet weather gear in preparation for the 2 hour walk to the doc hut at Martin’s Bay. I made the critical mistake of wearing my glasses instead of contact lenses and had lots of problems with the glasses getting wet and fogged up. This meant it was rather hard for me to actually see the track, so it was raining, I had a very heavy pack, and I couldn’t see that well. Not the best start to 7 days in the bush. An hour in and I had to stop and put my contacts in. From there on it was much easier. The track to the hut starts at the end of the runway, and it’s pretty easy going. I can’t tell you much about what it looked like, as I was half blind most of the way.

Martin’s Bay Hut close up (left) and from the beach (right).

Martin’s Bay hut is right on the beach and has a multi-million dollar view, it is simply quite outstanding.

The view from the back of the hut – the light was amazing when we arrived and the green of the bush seemed almost iridescent.

The view from the front of the hut – with the sand bar.