We hiked Gertrude Saddle on 31 December, New Year's Eve, at the very peak of summer and the tourist season. Since daylight lasts a long time at this time of year, we started from the car park at around 10 in the morning.
Before setting out it is worth checking the forecast closely. Better to make sure the day is not calling for low cloud, rain, or, worse, snow. I watched Windy for a good while, waiting for a window of the clearest possible weather over the region, with not a hint of cloud over the peaks (though even that is no guarantee the weather won't turn at any moment).
The summer of 2024–2025 was fairly warm, so the snow on the peaks around the valley had mostly melted and there were no avalanche warnings. That said, when we drove through a year later there was noticeably more snow and a warning was already up, so it varies from one time to the next. The whole route is well marked with orange poles.
The beautiful, epic views of the Gertrude Valley start right from the car park. The first two kilometres are an easy walk along the valley floor beside the Hollyford stream. So far it is all simple and pretty: the valley opens up ahead and behind, and you get the naive feeling that the track isn't really that hard.
Over those two kilometres along the valley we quietly gained an unnoticed hundred metres, but unfortunately what lay ahead was a steep climb of the remaining 650 metres over 2.5 kilometres. The elevation gain might sound modest, but because DOC classifies this as a Route rather than a Trail, the idea of a "path" here is loose. Lots of rock, natural steps of varying height, and a couple of places where you cross a mountain stream.
After the first 300 to 350 metres of gain you reach the rock section. No path at all, just a line up the bare rock and orange markers. If the weather has started to turn and fog is closing in, it is very important not to rush and to keep track of the markers, because there have been cases on this route where people went the wrong way and fell to their death off the cliff.
If it starts to rain, you can safely turn back, because in the wet the rocks on the route become very slippery and the risk of slipping off the edge rises sharply.
After about 550 metres of total gain you climb up to Black Lake. Here the Gertrude Valley opens from a slightly new angle, and the final point of the hike is already visible ahead.
The final 200 metres are a bit harder than the earlier part. Your strength slowly starts to run out, the slope steepens, and the landscape turns even wilder. But there is very little left to the saddle.
And then you simply step out onto the top.
On one side stays the Gertrude Valley you have just climbed. On the other, a valley opens up running toward Milford Sound. Far below you can see a river. To the left the fiord itself already shows between the mountains, and to the right stand the Darren Mountains.
And it becomes clear at once what the whole climb was for. Because the views up here really are insane.
The whole climb took us about 2.5 hours, without rushing but without long pauses either. We spent a little under an hour on the saddle. There were relatively few people for the New Year holidays, and some had come up with tents to stay the night.
If you want, you can climb a little higher for extra views over the valleys and the fiord, and if you still have the energy, higher again to Barrier Knob, from which you can see Lake Adelaide.
The descent by the same route took about 2 hours. All up, the whole thing took us a little under 6 hours with breaks. I probably would not recommend starting any earlier in midsummer, since the whole valley can sit in shadow for half the route, plus there is a risk of hitting patches of ice, even in summer.
Of all the routes we have done in New Zealand up to the time of writing, Gertrude Saddle is the one that stayed with me the most. Not the highest, not the longest, and definitely not the easiest, but the views from the top are worth every metre of the climb.