We did our Milford Track walk with Ultimate Hikes. There are two ways to do the Milford Track. As an independent walker, staying in huts (where you carry your own food and bedding) or as a guided walker with Ultimate Hikes (where you stay in lodges and bedding and food are provided and cooked for you).
We stayed in the bunkrooms, which we always had to ourselves (despite there being six beds), and we loved the three course meals every night, which were delicious, with wine and beer available. You made your own lunch every morning (a wide choice of sandwich fillings, including peanut butter and honey, as well as salads and cold meats, with lots of scroggin), and there was afternoon tea waiting at each lodge when you got there. The breakfast was a full cooked breakfast (and/or cereal and toast) so there was more than enough food to keep you going.
And one of the nicest food aspects was the hot chocolate that the guides schlepped up to the top of McKinnon Pass for us. Luxury!
For our group of 50, we had four guides, young twenty something guides with a lot of walking experience. They clearly knew everything they were supposed to know about the track and the vegetation, but weren’t as steeped in it as some of the other guides we’ve had in other parts of the world.
There was a presentation ceremony on the last night at Milford Sound which we found a bit cringeful (as one by one we stepped up to get our completion certificates) but we found the company excellent, and there were more other children than we expected, so Callum and Declan had a great afternoon after the McKinnon Pass playing hide and seek around the lodge with four others (aged 10-14 or so).