Milford Sound, New Zealand: Fjordland, just like Frozen.
The drive in to Milford Sound was phenomenal. Snow-capped mountain ranges, lakes, wild flowers and sheep… so many sheep. New Zealand is actually home to 7 times as many sheep as people. But, back to the scenery:
I would highly recommend renting a car and driving yourself to Milford Sound (as opposed to a tour bus). It’s wonderful to have the freedom to get out and stop at your leisure as you snake your way through these beautiful mountain ranges. At first, we were stopping at nearly every turn because each bend in the road became more and more picturesque. Then, we realized that we needed to be a little more strategic about our stops or we might never get to our destination. My best advice is to leave yourself enough time to drive at your pace and enjoy all the views along the way. Sometimes the journey is the best part of the trip.
Speaking of the journey, there are a couple other things you should know about the trek to Milford Sound. If it rained the night before you’re planning to drive (which is extremely likely), you will see about 90% more waterfalls along the route which is incredible. However, if it rained too much, they will close down the roads due to flooding as most of the waterfalls are rushing down the mountain just a couple feet from the road. You can check in with NZ Transport Agency’s website to ensure the roads are still open before your drive. Additionally, you do have drive through a dark and potentially intimidating tunnel (depending on how you feel about tunnels) to get to Milford Sound. The Homer Tunnel was constructed to make the Milford Sound more accessible and it first opened in 1953. The mile-long underground passage goes right through the middle of the mountain and it is an experience. Lastly, you must cross over a number of ‘one way bridges‘, which are exactly what they sound like. You must yield to oncoming traffic (buses, RV’s, etc) as these bridges are (barely) wide enough for just one vehicle to pass. You get used to them eventually, but they are a bit confusing at first. Again, all part of the journey.
Milford Sound is widely known as New Zealand’s #1 tourist destination and attracts around a million visitors per year. Unfortunately, it is incorrectly named as a ‘sound’. It is formed by glaciers, which technically makes it a fiord. Boat or kayak is the preferred method of transportation to get the full experience in this World Heritage site. We booked our boat tour on Southern Discoveries cruise lines and I would highly recommend them. They have a fleet of ships, knowledgeable tour guides, sandwiches, and complimentary coffee. The natural beauty of the Milford Sound speaks for itself, but our guides were great at pointing out the wildlife (penguins, seals, and dolphins) as well as the history of some of the geological formations and waterfalls.
For me, the most interesting part of the tour was how close our gigantic boat could get to the sides of the mountains. One of the characteristics of a fiord is that they are extremely deep under water and then the mountainous rock face shoots out of the water directly vertical thousands of feet high. In certain places along the tour, the captain could navigate the front of the boat within a few feet of the mountain. The first time we did this was to capture fresh glacial water from a small waterfall so we could sample it. Then, later in the tour we put on wet suits and went under a gigantic waterfall just for fun.
The tour also included entrance into the Milford Sound Discovery Centre and Underwater Observatory. This is a floating structure that allows you to go down 4 stories underwater and view the wildlife. Kind of like an aquarium, but the fish come and go as they please. Worth checking out.
There are only about 200 people who live in Milford Sound total and all of them are in the tourism industry. The only accommodations for visitors are campsites, your camper van, or the Milford Sound Lodge. We stayed in the lodge and had a great time. They do have a restaurant onsite, but I would recommend bringing in your own supplies from Te Anau as well, which is a small town located about an hour way. You will pass it on your way and a lot people actually commute back and forth from Te Anau to Milford Sound because of the lack of accommodations. Milford Sound does not have any hotels, gas stations, grocery stores, breweries, vineyards or convenience stores. Just pure nature and beauty, which is awesome. However, if you’re staying there, you need to plan ahead with materials from Te Anau. We had a great night cooking in the lodge’s fully stocked kitchen, drinking wine, and playing cards with some newly made friends.
There is also some great hiking in Milford Sound. We chose Key Summit and were not disappointed. There was about 15 different hikes around that area and I’m sure each was absolutely stunning with varying degrees of difficulty. Milford Sound is a must-see and I would highly recommend booking a boat tour as well as doing at least 2 different hikes.
