At the track's northern end, where the Hollyford River meets the Tasman Sea at Martins Bay, there is almost nothing left of Jamestown. In the 1860s, the Otago Provincial Council saw a future port here - a gateway to the riches of the interior. A settlement was surveyed, houses built, and families arrived with the optimism that accompanied every colonial venture in nineteenth-century New Zealand. But the sandbar at the bay's entrance was treacherous, road links to the rest of the province never materialized, and by 1879 - barely eleven years after its founding - Jamestown was practically deserted. Only the McKenzie family held on near Martins Bay. They sold their property to Davy Gunn in 1926, and Gunn transformed the abandoned valley into something new: a tramping destination. He mapped the area, guided walking parties through the Hollyford, Pyke, and Cascade valleys, and became the valley's most famous resident until his death in 1955.

Davy Gunn's son Murray carried on his father's work, eventually establishing Gunn's Camp near the track's southern end, about 10 km from the Milford Sound-Te Anau highway. The camp - part rest stop, part small museum - still stands, a remnant of the family that made this valley their life's work for decades. The Hollyford Track itself follows routes that Gunn pioneered, though the Department of Conservation has since upgraded his rough trails and built huts along the 56 km length. In 1960, the valley became part of Fiordland National Park, formalizing what Gunn had understood all along: this was a landscape worth protecting. Today, Ngai Tahu Tourism, owned by the South Island's principal Maori tribal group, operates guided trips that combine hiking, jetboating, and helicopter flights in a three-day journey from the mountains to the sea.

What sets the Hollyford apart from Fiordland's other major tracks is altitude - or rather, the lack of it. While the Milford Track climbs to McKinnon Pass at 1,069 metres and the Routeburn reaches the Harris Saddle at 1,255 metres, the Hollyford stays in the valley. The track follows the Hollyford River roughly south to north, its southern trailhead accessible by road 15 km east of the Homer Tunnel. Along the way it passes two lakes that tell the story of the landscape's geology. Lake Alabaster, also known by its Maori name Waiwahuika, sits where the river broadens. Lake McKerrow, or Whakatipu Waitai, is the former fiord - a body of water that once opened to the sea before sediment blocked the channel. The surrounding peaks include Mount Tutoko, which rises 2,700 metres above the valley floor, its snow-clad summit visible from the track on clear days. At sea level, Martins Bay offers encounters with seals, penguins, and herons - wildlife more commonly associated with a coastal walk than a Fiordland tramping track.

Since the 1870s, proposals have surfaced periodically to build a road through the Hollyford Valley linking Haast to the Milford Sound road. Each time, the idea generates fierce opposition. Forest and Bird, New Zealand's largest conservation organization, called the proposal the "biological equivalent of smashing the Mona Lisa." A gravel road was under construction up the valley until 1941, when workers were pulled off for the war effort. After World War II, prison and unemployed labor pushed the road further, but in 1960 the valley entered Fiordland National Park. The most recent serious proposal came in 2010, backed by the Westland District Council and a hotel chain, but the government shelved it as a low priority. The valley remains roadless beyond Gunn's Camp. For trampers, that is precisely the point.