The southern part of the South Island of New Zealand is the most beautiful place I’ve ever been. With so many unique and incredible outdoor experiences available, it was tough to narrow down exactly what we wanted to spend time doing.
I had never heard of Milford Sound before, but upon visiting in the 1890s, famous author Rudyard Kipling deemed it an eighth wonder of the world. So, I was sold, and ready to make like Mowgli and explore the Kiwi forests.
When you look on a map, Queenstown looks like the perfect launch point into Milford Sound. And if you’re willing to shell out for a helicopter tour, it is!
Okay, I spent so much time trying to figure out what Milford Sound is before we went, but like, nothing on the Internet really describes it well.
And that’s probably warranted - I walked away calling it indescribable!
Milford Sound sits inside Fiordland National Park, and is actually a fiord, not a sound. I don’t know the difference, and that probably means nothing to most of you. Essentially, it’s an inlet of water shooting off the Tasman Sea, carved out of the mountains and rainforest all around it. It’s the only fiord accessible by road in New Zealand, but is still one of the least modified areas of the country’s natural ecosystem.
I already briefly mentioned the helicopter tours, so I won’t expand on those further - there’s not much else to say. But, there’s a few other great options for experiencing Milford Sound: tour bus from Queenstown, staying/camping at Milford Lodge, or staying around Te Anau!
There are a bunch of companies that run day bus tours from both Queenstown and Te Anau. I’ll focus more on the details from Queenstown, because to get to Te Anau, you’ll need a rental car. So if you’ve already made it there, you should just drive to Milford Sound yourself.
From Queenstown, you’re looking at about a 13 hour day for the tour. All of them include a boat tour, as well as a few stops along the way. Here’s a pretty generic itinerary that’s consistent across all the tour companies:
Here’s the pro: You don’t have to worry about any planning or driving, and you can just enjoy what you get to do. The Mirror Lakes and The Chasm are super cool, easy walks, and the boat cruise is also great; you really get some of the highlights!
Con: A 20 minute conversation with some locals in Te Anau, or even Queenstown, will give you a number of just as exciting things to do that are more unique. What you gain in lack of responsibility, you obviously lose in flexibility.
Now, I’m gonna run through what staying in Milford or Te Anau looks like, then follow with some things to do if you’re traveling more flexibly than the tour bus.
Milford Lodge is the only place to stay inside of the Fiordland and, no surprise, you’re going to pay for it. The Lodge is beautiful - we didn’t stay there, but we stopped in for breakfast and loved it. Rooms start at 300NZD, and quickly get up to almost 600/night for the two bedrooms. But, if you are looking for a place to splurge on somewhere to stay, this is it!
The only drawback with staying at Milford Lodge is the food.
There’s one restaurant at The Lodge, Pio Pio, and one restaurant at the information center near the boat dock. The downside isn’t with the quality of the food - you’re getting really really great locally sourced ingredients. But, dinner is super pricey. Like 40NZD and up for an entree. Breakfast and lunch we found to be really reasonable, but I would either shop in Te Anau before you go, or potentially buy extra at lunch to keep in your room until dinner.
If you’re traveling in a campervan, they do offer campsites for 50NZD/day! The iconic vans you’ll see everywhere are from Jucy, and run between 100-150NZD/day depending on time of year you’re booking.
Te Anau is a small town along the Milford Track that’s the closest population center to Milford Sound. To get to the boat launch is about an hour and a half drive, and you’re about two hours from Queenstown. There are a number of inns, motels, and hotels that are super affordable in town, as well as Airbnbs. For our visit, we stayed in a yurt just outside the city center, which was so much fun! One of the hosts is a kayak tour guide in Milford Sound, and it was so nice to get to pick his brain on what to do. I would highly recommend staying in “Yurty,” and while we were there, Andrew and his family were working on Yurt #2 for the property! We got to poke around, and it was massive!
While Te Anau is great for having a few extra things to do, the biggest pro is all of the restaurants and cafes around. Especially since Brooke was pregnant when we visited, having more food options was a major comfort for us. Plus, the drive out of Milford after a day of adventuring was really nice for processing and reflecting on all the incredible things we had seen.
The drive into Milford Sound is absolutely mind-boggling. When you get through the tunnel, you emerge into this crazy landscape of water cascading all around you and just keep winding further and further back into the fiord. There are a few really amazing places to stop, as well as some great short hikes that are easy to fit in if you’re only visiting for a day or two.
Kayaking is absolutely the best way to experience Milford Sound up close and personal. Rosco’s is the OG of Milford kayaking, and in our experience, also offers by far the best customer service. Unfortunately, it gets really windy in Milford, sometimes to the point where kayaking isn’t feasible. We hit some bad luck, and Rosco’s decided to cancel the trip. They immediately gave us our refund, and the low down on why we couldn’t go.
Truly, it looked miserable out there. The other two kayaking companies sent their boats out, and when I say people were moving backwards, they were literally moving backwards. We were very content with our refund and recommendations from our guide.
Boat tours are the only way to explore deep into the fiord in a day. You can find a list of tour companies here, but our guide-to-be at Rosco’s gave us the lowdown. They’re all the same, so choose the cheapest one, or the one that best fits your schedule. All of the boats offer tea and coffee on board. If I remember right, Jucy also offers you a cookie. We did ours on Mitre Peak, because it’s the cheapest, and they go further into the sound than any other tour! Their smaller boats also allow them to get closer to the mountains and waterfalls. The differences are all really slight, but any boat tour is a great use of two hours while visiting.
There are so many awesome spots to stop on the drive in and out, and someone at Milford Sound Lodge or at the boat depot has the paper version of this guide. But, the one that stood out the most to us was The Chasm Walk. This is one of the places tour busses stop, so it's a little more crowded than most of the other stops, but totally worth it! The hike is maybe half a mile each way, and you know you’re getting close when the roar of the water is the only thing you can hear.
If you have 4-5 days and are up for a life-changing hike, the Milford Track is right up your alley. It’s 53.5km, and probably the most famous of New Zealand’s 10 Great Walks. That linked guide really is comprehensive for planning your trip! It’s definitely on my Bucket List of experiences to get back to.
Another stop on the way in or out, Humbolt Falls Lookout Trail gives you a (still distanced, but) slightly closer view of the massive waterfall. The hike should only take about 20 minutes round trip, but is an easy stop that typically isn’t crowded.
Well, that’s Milford Sound! It’s beauty is so hard to describe, and while its remoteness may be a turnoff for the experience, it’s absolutely worth the time and effort it takes to get there. Check back for more blogs on Queenstown and Te Anau to help put an entire South Island adventure together!
