Growing appreciation of the scenic beauty of the Milford area in the 1880s led to a determined search for access to it by land.

Milford Sound was known to sealers and whalers as a refuge from the storms of the tempestuous West Coast long before there was any thought of approaching it by an overland route.



But the presence of explorer/surveyor, Donald Sutherland in the area was to lead to a great deal of interest in opening up a route to Milford from the landward side, not only on the part of the hermit himself but also by various explorers and surveyors.

The venturesome years in seeking a track to the sound were the 1880s, and it is interesting that the suggestion then was not a track from Te Anau up the Eglinton and into the lower Hollyford Valley, but one from Lake Wakatipu, the explorers setting off from the Greenstone across Key Summit into the Hollyford Valley.

But the great barrier to the Sound from the landward side was a range of mountains long thought to be impassable, which reached their lowest level near Mount Balloon.

But the Milford Sound was gradually becoming better known through the writings of various enthusiastic travellers, one of the most outstanding of whom was Samuel 'Moreton, who was first a housepainter and then an artist. Accompanied by W. Y. H. Hall, an Invercargill solicitor, and John Robinson, a surveyor, he visited the Milford Sound in 1881.

The party explored the Cleddau Valley, trying to find a way through to Lake Wakatipu, but found themselves walled in by an amphitheatre of cliffs. Moreton was so captivated by what he saw that he remained behind to sketch the scenery. He became one of Fiordland's greatest publicity exponents; his paintings appeared in British and Australian magazines and were also exhibited in two of the London Institutes.

Moreton states that the first view of Mount Balloon, after visiting it from the Milford Sound end in 1883 in company with Donald Sutherland, filled them with amazement. He described it as a great horn rising an estimated 3,000 feet in height above the range. The range itself (Mackinnon Pass) appeared to be about 3,750 feet. This is remarkably close to the actual height.

Samuel Moreton's paintings and his description of the scenic grandeur of Arthur Valley added weight to earlier reports and helped to move the authorities to exploit its scenic and other potentialities.

A Determined Effort: During the next few years rewards were offered by the Otago and Southland authorities for the discovery of a practical route to Milford Sound. The Government offered a £50 reward, and £300 was offered by the Wallace County Council.

Nothing was done however until 1888 when a strong survey party, with C. W. Adams, Chief Surveyor of Otago, in charge, was dispatched to Milford Sound to survey the head of the Sound, Arthur Valley, measure the height of the Sutherland Falls and endeavour to find a practical route to the interior.

To further the latter project it was arranged that Quintin McKinnon should investigate the Clinton Valley and try to find a pass, while the main party was similarly engaged on the Milford side. The party left Bluff on September 26 in the Ohau and arrived at Milford Sound the following afternoon.

On the same day they landed stores, and W. S. Pillans liberated some trout fry in the Cleddau River. Adams and his men formed one party at the Milford Sound end and Mackenzie, Pillans, Muir and others set off for Lake Ada with provisions and materials with which to make a canvas boat.

Meantime Adams and his men were carrying out their own explorations, measuring the height of the Sutherland Falls. One of his men remarked that they saw "four explorers" coming over the pass near Mount Balloon.

They were black swans which he said would cross the mountains at their lowest point. He remarked that he wouldn't be surprised if this proved to be the pass they were looking for.

Quintin McKinnon and Ernest Mitchell left Manapouri on September 2 1888 with the Clinton Valley as their destination. They called at Lynwood Station where they stayed the night, going on to Melland's at Te Anau Downs the following day.

Two days later they set off by boat for the head of the lake, taking with them tents, tools and provisions. They reached a mile up river before setting up camp.

Ernest Mitchell, of Manapouri Station, was a powerfully built, steady, reliable young fellow, a splendid right-hand man for the redoubtable McKinnon-and all their strength and endurance were to be severely tested during the next two months.

Quintin McKinnon was born in the Shetland Islands, and for a time he fought on the side of the French in the Franco-Prussian War. On arrival in New Zealand he followed his profession as a surveyor but, seeking to satisfy his roving instincts, he went freelance. With Te Anau as his head-quarters he made frequent excursions into the unknown territory beyond.

The Trials of an Explorer: On September 17 they started to cut the track, continuing their arduous labours as pathfinders for the next three weeks and enduring all the misery the weather in that region could heap upon them. Their blankets became one moving mass of blowflies, heavy rain penetrated their tent until it was as wet inside as out, and they developed sores through working and sleeping in wet clothes.

They ran short of food and were reduced to one meal a day. Thunderstorms with terrific lightning bedevilled them and kept them shivering in their tents, unable to get a fire going to make a hot drink, dry their bedding or drive out the cold which had soaked into them. On September 28 they came to a lake.

From their description it would be what is now called Hidden Lake, where a loop track allowing it to be seen now leaves the main track to rejoin it a quarter of a mile farther on.

On October 6 they retreated to their first camp and found the river had risen 12 feet in their absence, ruining all the stores they had left there and compelling them to return to Te Anau Downs to replenish them. At Melland's Station they were given dry clothes, a luxury they had not enjoyed for a week, and started back next day after a good night's sleep.

They reached Safe Cove that night and camped there, completing their journey the next morning. Pulling their boat up to a safe distance from the water's edge, they set off to the forward camp, nine miles distant, very heavily laden with supplies. This trip took seven and a half hours.

For the next seven days they laboured on, hindered by the almost endless rain. Leaving their camp early one morning, they came to a little lake they named Lake Beautiful, but which McKinnon later named Mintaro. Why he gave it such a name is a mystery, but in Spanish it means resting place.

They were now right up against the pass, and were resolved that at this stage nothing would stop them. Making use of every handhold and foothold they dragged themselves to the top. Even at that stage the weather had not improved and with the pelting rain driven by wind they could only grope their way along the pass looking for a possible way down.

This they did not find until they reached the base of Mount Balloon. With night coming on, they halted at the first reasonable shelter they could find, some distance down from the top. With everything dripping wet it was impossible to light a fire and they went to bed supperless.

Success at Last: In the morning the prospect was no better so they cut out breakfast as well, scrambled down to the bushline and on until at 2 p.m. they came to a shingle beach where there was some dry wood. Raising a fire, they served themselves a good dinner of blue mountain duck. Proceeding further, they intercepted Donald Sutherland's track and knew for certain they had accomplished what they had set out to do.

They left a message written on a card with the date of their arrival addressed to Sutherland or Adams, saying that they were going down the river. They camped some three miles on and the next day went on-according to their account-to the lake, but probably only as far as the lagoon known as Lake Brown.

They returned to their camp, spent another wet day there, then on the following day, just as they were ready to eat a good meal, visitors arrived. First on the scene was a dog, and it was followed by Wyinks, Pillans and Thomas Mackenzie, all half-starved, who had come upon McKinnon's message on the way down from the exploration of the Arthur River. The newcomers were warmly welcomed and were given a hearty meal.

McKinnon and his visitors arrived at the foot of the lake the next day in their canvas boat and later McKinnon made his report to the Chief Surveyor. Then, leaving Mitchell to wait at Milford Sound for the coming ship, he rejoined Mackenzie and Pillans. With Fred Muir, the photographer, they returned over the newly found pass to Te Anau, again crossing in a snowstorm.

It was with great relief that they reached the comparative safety of the Clinton. Then next day, at about 3 p.m. they reached the spot where their boat had been left and pushed off immediately. After a rough trip down the lake they eventually reached Lumsden where McKinnon sent a telegram to Wellington acquainting the Government with the discovery of the overland route to Milford Sound.

McKinnon did not live long after the discovery of his pass. He left Te Anau on November 30 1892 on his way to Milford Sound and his overturned boat was subsequently found near the head of the lake.

McKinnon was always conscious of the dangers to be faced by those alone in Fiordland. "Probably they'll find my bones resting at the foot of some precipice one of these days; or I may be sleeping quietly at the bottom of the lake", he once said.

The Work Continues: Another name that is closely identified with the route to Milford Sound is that of W. H. Homer, a settler at Martin's Bay, who was among those who held that a more serviceable route could still be found than that over the Mackinnon Pass.

Homer had narrowed down the search to the head of the Hollyford and he was the first to advocate the construction of a tunnel linking the Hollyford and Cleddau Valleys. On January 27 1889 he discovered the saddle at the head of the Hollyford which bears his name.

He and his companion George Barber also visited the upper Eglinton where they named Lake Fergus after Thomas Fergus, the M.P. for Wakatipu at the time.

Homer contended that a road, or even a tunnel, would remove the isolation of Milford Sound. His claim was investigated by E. H. Wilmot, Commissioner of Crown Lands for Otago, who after leading a party there which included Homer, dismissed the Homer Saddle as "quite useless for a route to Milford".

But in spite of Wilmot's adverse report Homer persisted in advocating a tunnel, and because of his persistence the Public Works Department sent their Wellington District Engineer, R. W. Holmes, to make a further examination.

He reported that a tunnel through the saddle and a dray road to Milford Sound were both feasible. His plan was pigeonholed and, although Holmes eventually became Engineer-in-Chief himself, the tunnel was not started until 1935.

The first attempt to cross the Darran Mountains watershed between the Hollyford and Cleddau Valleys, was made by William Quill who, on March 9 1890, had climbed the cliff at the side of the Sutherland Falls and discovered they were fed by a lake a mile wide from an immense glacier on Mount Sutherland.

It was a tremendous climb in which Quill had to inch his way for three and a half hours, 1,904 feet up the rock walls. The lake was subsequently named Lake Quill after the explorer. One or two others have since made the hazardous climb but it is viewed today mostly from passing aircraft, and is one of the localities visited on various scenic flights into Fiordland.

On January 15 Billy Quill set out to attempt a passage of the Gertrude Saddle which, like the Homer, lies between the Cleddau and the upper Hollyford.

Tragically he slipped over a precipice to his death on the Milford side of the saddle, but he is still remembered today as the first man to cross the Darran Mountains.

His death emphasised the difficulties involved in crossing the Homer and Gertrude Saddles and it became all the more obvious that a tunnel was the sole solution. Only then could Homer's dream become a reality of opening up Milford Sound.

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