About 80 independent trampers are safe and now onboard a Real Journeys boat sailing from Glade Wharf, at the head of Lake Te Anau, to Te Anau Downs, where they will be taken by coach to the Te Anau township.
The other approximately 40 trampers of the estimated 120 forced to spend a second night in huts on Milford Track last night were also safe and
were flown directly to Milford Sound. They would be taken by coach to Te Anau and arrive this evening.
Department of Conservation (Doc) Te Anau visitor assets programme manager Ross Kerr said everyone was now off the Milford Track, apart
from hut rangers, who were starting the decommissioning process as it was the end of the Great Walks season.
Trampers had to be evacuated from the three Doc huts today after they were stranded by high winds and floods last night.
Up to 485mm of rain was recorded yesterday and today at the Dumpling Hut automatic weather station.
Earlier Doc Te Anau visitor assets programme manager Ross Kerr said the department radioed rangers at each hut following two severe weather warnings from the Metservice.
"No one could move physically or safely so the best thing to do was to hold them in the huts,'' Mr Kerr said.
Winds of 100kmh were recorded on the MacKinnon Pass and flooding occured in Clinton and Arthur Valleys. Up to 252mm of rain was recorded at the Dumpling Hut automatic weather station.
Mr Kerr said flooding could happen at any time of the year.
"The first week of January we had a metre of rain in nine days at Dumpling Hut,'' he said.
Today's helicopter operation was estimated to cost $2000 to $3000 and would be met by revenue generated by the tracks.
The 120 tourists were in the penultimate party of the Great Walks season.
