March last year, Wellington runner and legend Joe Benbow bought together a 24 strong contingent of keen trail runners, all amped and excited to knock off the Milford Track in a single day. Traditionally a four day Great Walk Hike, what makes this a run-venture like no other is its isolated location – with pristine raw natural beauty, waterfalls a plenty, and epic majestic mountains, there are no boring bits to the Milford Track trail!
54km with 1,755 meters Elev. Gain. It is truly a bucket-list mission.
But, for runners at least, the biggest challenge, and likely why it’s not a popular route, is its access and logistics. A point-to-point trail cut off from foot or car access, it requires boats to get you started… and home again! Runners wanting to complete the track in a single day must also do it heading south, into the flow of Great Walk Hikers. That makes Milford the start line, requiring you to jump on the earliest boat transfer out from Deepwater Basin. Milford is a 2 hour drive from Te Anau, often in the dark, and here accomodation is extremely limited (and expensive). Then once on the track, and some 54km later, there will be a second boat waiting at the Glade Wharf finish to get you back to ‘mainland’ at Te Anau Downs (this boat journey is approximately 60min and then there is a further 25min drive back to Te Anau). So organising transport for yourself to and from this epic track can be a lot of work and will bump the cost of your trip up. On top of that, there are some tight cut-off times, with the last scheduled boats leaving Glade Wharf at 4pm. With no comms anywhere on the Milford Track (yet), you best make that boat before it departs, or also be hit with a hefty charter ‘rescue fee’.
What Joe did last year, in bringing 24 runners together, allowed the larger than usual group some more flexibility with regard to the finish timings. Seating 12 people each, two full boats could be privately chartered to take the group off the track at 5pm and 7pm, for the same cost per runner as the 4pm boat. This allows everyone a little more time to complete the 54km. Unfortunately for us timing did not work in our favour last year, and we didn’t get to run the Milford Track with Joe and the crew, but we did get to attend the group dinner the evening before, and joined Joe, Sean and Stephen for a small part of their Kepler side mission a few days later. We’d wait and hope he’d organise it again the following Summer….
Sadly the world lost Joe and all the light he shone in October 2023. Slowly the idea came about to replicate Joes group mission (reusing his masterfully created runner spreadsheet) in his honour; keeping the conversations around mental heath, and the importance of community, high on the agenda. A tribute to what Joe began, we took the baton and organised a 2024 mission, locking it in just a few days short of Joes own led run the year prior. During the organising we found a few extra ways to support the group to make it easier for those attending (particularly around the driving), and hopefully deepen the group experience and connection. Joe left big shoes to fill and while some new additions were made on top of his already amazing organisation, there were some ideas we had bubbling away that we couldn’t quite pull off this year… Should there be a 2024/25 edition, perhaps these will come into fruition….
March 25th, 2024 – Joes Milford Run, the 2nd Edition.
24 Runners, including one returnee from last years group (thank you Scott!) joined us.
54km of Milford Track. Grateful for fantastic weather and wonderful people. What a weekend. What. A. Crew!
All absolute legends; Tom, Anna, Tibo, Henry, Ian, Bogdan, Lee, Kat, Scott, Sarah, Kristy and Aaron (Boat Crew A), Charlie, Jason, Sandy, Holly, Jeannie, Hilary, Nicola, Amanda, Lexy, Rebecca, Andy and Kelvin (Boat Crew B). Some having hustled to join the mission with just 6 days notice, filling a few last minute spaces that came about due to injury. Runners from as far as Tauranga, Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin, Team Queenstown, Hawera and Wanaka, Te Anau and Winton too. Thank you all for coming!
Well done everyone and congratulations on completing the Milford Track. All runners present and on time for their boats at the finish, looking great and smiling big. You all rock! 🙏
Above : Everyone at Deepwater Basin in the pitch dark waiting for the sun to rise and the water taxi departures to begin. A short 5-10 minute boat ride to Sandfly Point, shuttling 10 runners per trip to the the start of the track.
Above : Boats 2 and 3 waiting their turn. As the group gets smaller, the daylight gets brighter… and the sandfly participation increases significantly. Taking photos definitely gets easier.
Above : The final four. Team Hawea or ‘The Elites’ as named by the skipper. Jase (on the right) failed to mention he was celebrating a birthday this week…. I’m certain a pre-dawn 24 strong choir singing Happy Birthday on the edge of Deepwater Basin would have elevated the experience, if not sent the sandflies packing. Happy Birthday Jase!!!
