Milford Sound Travel Guide

Things to do at Milford Sound

On the road in

1. Eglinton Valley (free)

The first big open view after Te Anau Downs: a flat, tussock valley floor with beech forest up both sides and the mountains closing in at the far end. Coaches stop here, and The Beachpackers, on an AwesomeNZ coach day, said it was the one stop they wished they could have stayed at longer. That’s the argument for driving yourself in one line.

There’s no walk to speak of. Pull into one of the marked lay-bys, not the verge, and give it ten minutes. Luxe Tours, a Te Anau operator, says the Queenstown coaches reach this stretch from about 10:30am. Before that you’ll likely have it to yourself.

2. Mirror Lakes (free)

A short boardwalk loop beside the road, about 5 minutes end to end, with signs at the water. On a still morning the Earl Mountains reflect in the ponds, which is the whole point. On a windy day there’s nothing to see: Chloé and sometimes Ludvig stopped and got ripples. The Beachpackers and Ben Devery both had calm water and both put it in their videos.

Go early. Same reason as the valley: the coaches arrive mid morning and the boardwalk is narrow.

3. Knobs Flat, Pop’s View and Christie Falls (free)

Three quick stops as the road climbs. Knobs Flat has toilets, which Luxe Tours calls the last flushing ones before Milford, and Bani NZ’s coach used it as the comfort stop. Pop’s View looks down the Hollyford Valley. Christie Falls is right beside the road and you’ll see it from the car whether you stop or not.

None needs more than a few minutes. Treat them as places to stretch, not destinations.

4. Monkey Creek and the kea (free)

A creek just before the tunnel where the water runs clear enough that three of the travellers we watched filled a bottle straight from it (Dane and Stacey, Bani NZ and Ben Devery). It’s also where kea, the alpine parrot, tend to hang around the car park.

They’re curious and they’re destructive. Hayliv K had kea pecking the rubber seals of their hire car at the tunnel lights. Don’t feed them; Bani NZ’s driver said the same.

5. The Homer Tunnel

A single lane, 1.2 km, unlined rock tunnel through the mountain, controlled by traffic lights. Waits travellers timed were 7 and 10 minutes. The tunnel is the high point of the road, about 940 m above sea level according to Bani NZ’s driver, and you come out into the Cleddau Valley with the road dropping in hairpins below you.

One small thing: Coleman Murray left his headlights on after the tunnel and came back from his cruise to a flat battery. Turn them off.

6. The Chasm (free, check it’s open)

A 15 minute return walk through forest to a bridge over the Cleddau River, which has carved round holes and channels into the rock. The Beachpackers’ coach stopped here, but the bridge was closed on the day they went, so check before you plan around it.

At the terminal

7. A cruise on the fiord

This is why almost everyone comes. A standard cruise is 1 hour 45 minutes to 2 hours, runs the full length of the fiord out to the Tasman Sea, and noses under Stirling Falls on the way. Five of six travellers we watched did exactly that loop, and all of them called it worth the drive.

The choice that matters is boat size, not price: smaller boats got the most praise for getting close to the falls and the seals. We’ve compared every cruise sold from the terminal, from 75 seat small boats to 200 seat catamarans and two overnight boats, on our cruise comparison.

8. The foreshore walk (free)

A flat 20 minute walk along the shore from the terminal, with Mitre Peak across the water and Lady Bowen Falls at the far end. It’s the view you’ve seen on postcards and it costs nothing. The NZ Brits got Mitre Peak as their backdrop just walking the boardwalk to the terminal.

This is also the honest answer to whether you need a cruise. You don’t, to see Mitre Peak. You do, to see the fiord.

9. Kayaking

A paddle in the inner fiord, usually on a guided trip with a short boat or shuttle to the launch point. Dane and Stacey added kayaking to a Southern Discoveries coach day and got back to Queenstown about 9:30pm, which tells you how much it adds to an already long day. On the overnight cruises, kayaks come included: Chloé and sometimes Ludvig’s boat had 20, first come first served.

Kayaking is the closest you’ll get to the cliffs and the seals without a boat engine running. It also depends more on wind than anything else here.

10. The underwater observatory

A floating observatory at Harrison Cove, reached by cruise boat, with a viewing chamber about 10 m below the surface. The dark freshwater layer on top of the fiord lets deep sea species such as black coral grow at diving depths. Dane and Stacey visited on their combination day. It’s sold as an add-on to some cruises rather than on its own.

11. A day walk on the Milford Track

The Milford Track is a 4 day walk, but you can do the last part as a day trip: a water taxi from Deepwater Basin drops you at Sandfly Point and you walk back into the forest for up to 4 hours. Southern Discoveries sells it as a package with a nature cruise, at about 7 hours in total. A reviewer noted a walk of a couple of kilometres from the water taxi back to the terminal at the end.

It’s the best option here for people who’d rather walk than sit on a boat.

Staying longer or going up

12. An overnight cruise

Two boats stay out in the fiord overnight: the Milford Mariner, with up to 64 guests, and the Fiordland Jewel, with up to 22. You board mid afternoon, after most day boats have gone, then kayak, eat dinner, hear a crew nature talk and wake up anchored in the fiord. Chloé and sometimes Ludvig rated the food and the talk highly. Both cruises are non-refundable, and the run out to the Tasman Sea next morning can be rough. They’re compared side by side with the day boats.

13. A scenic flight

Flying is the one way to do Milford from Queenstown in half a day. Flights cross the mountains, and some land at Milford so you can cruise and fly back. No traveller in our research flew, and Luxe Tours points out the catch for self-drivers: you can’t fly back if your car is at Milford. A coach in and a flight out is the usual way round that.

Free things to do

Most of Milford costs nothing except fuel and parking. If you drove in and skipped the boat, you’d still have a full day.

• The stops on the road: Eglinton Valley, Mirror Lakes, Pop’s View, Christie Falls, Monkey Creek and The Chasm, all free and all within a few minutes of the car.
• The foreshore walk from the terminal, for Mitre Peak and Lady Bowen Falls.
• The kea at the tunnel and Monkey Creek. Watch, photograph, don’t feed.
• Drinking from a mountain creek. Three of the travellers we watched did it and lived to film the rest of the day.
• Waterfalls after rain. On a wet day the cliffs on the drive down from the tunnel run with hundreds of falls that aren’t there in dry weather. Free, and better than anything on a sunny day.

What isn’t free: parking near the terminal, which is charged by the hour, and fuel, which is limited and dearer at Milford than in Te Anau. More on both under Getting there.

One more free thing people miss: the long walks off the road, such as the Key Summit track from The Divide, which start from the highway and need half a day on their own. They’re worth it if you stay in Te Anau and come back for a second day, not on the day of your cruise.

Milford Sound with kids

The cruise is easy with children. The day around it is the hard part.

A coach day from Queenstown runs about 12 hours with a 6am to 7:30am pickup. Luxe Tours, which runs small groups from Te Anau, doesn’t recommend the Queenstown day trip for children under 5. Dane and Stacey, two adults, called it “a huge day”. Bani NZ did it as a family with a 4 year old and a child aged 5 to 15, and it worked, but they were up at 5am.

What made it easier for the families we watched:

• Staying in Te Anau the night before. It cuts the drive to 2 hours each way.
• The sheltered front window on the boat. Ben Devery sat his kids there with a pack of cards and let the fiord come to them.
• Short, frequent stops. Mirror Lakes and Monkey Creek are both a few minutes from the car. Dane and Stacey said a stop about every hour kept the 5 hour run in from dragging.
• More snacks than seems sensible, plus something on a screen for the long sits, which Luxe Tours suggests.
• Warm layers. Our World Journey, with their family on board, had about 5°C on deck.

Two age rules worth knowing: Cruise Milford asks for proof of a child’s age at check-in, and the Fiordland Jewel’s lunch cruise takes children from 6 only. The kea will be the highlight for some kids. Keep small hands, and lunches, away from them.

Milford Sound on a rainy day

Go anyway. Rain is the most common weather here, and four of the sources we used said it makes Milford better, not worse.

The reason is the cliffs. Milford gets rain on something like 180 to 200 days a year, depending on whose video you believe, and when it falls hard, hundreds of temporary waterfalls pour off the rock walls on the drive down from the tunnel and all along the fiord. Helen and Tim Travel had rain overnight and a clear morning, which is the best combination there is. The Beachpackers, who had a sunny day, said they “missed the dramatic beauty” of a wet one.

What changes when it rains:

• You lose the peaks. Low cloud can hide Mitre Peak completely. If the mountain is the picture you came for, keep a spare day.
• Mirror Lakes stops mirroring. Rain or wind breaks up the surface.
• Covered seating matters. Pure Milford’s boat has two glass roofs, and glass roofed coaches let you look up at the falls from your seat. Two coach travellers singled those out.
• The walks get muddy and the sandflies don’t care. Bring a waterproof jacket and repellent either way.

What rain on its own doesn’t do is cancel the cruise. Boats sail in rain. A closed Milford Road can stop the day, and that’s a call made by the road authority, usually for snow, slips or avalanche risk in winter. Bani NZ’s cruise was cancelled for a different reason altogether, a tsunami warning after an earthquake in Russia, and RealNZ refunded them in full. Our booking help page explains how weather cancellations and refunds work.

Getting to Milford Sound

There are three ways in: drive, take a coach, or fly. Most people drive or take a coach, and the choice mostly comes down to where you’re sleeping.

Driving the Milford Road

State Highway 94 runs 120 km from Te Anau to Milford, sealed all the way, through Fiordland National Park. It’s not a difficult road in summer. It’s a long one with no services.

• Fuel in Te Anau, both ways. There’s no fuel or shop on the road to Milford. The Milford pump is small, dearer and, according to Luxe Tours, sometimes empty. Hayliv K left Te Anau without filling up and spent the drive watching the gauge.
• Food from Te Anau too. Milford has one self-serve cafe with pies and wraps, which Our World Journey used, and not much else.
• No phone signal for much of the road. Download offline maps before you leave, as Hayliv K advises.
• The Homer Tunnel is single lane with traffic lights. Allow 10 minutes for the wait. Lights off on the far side.
• Add half again to whatever your map app says. Luxe Tours puts Queenstown to Milford at 4 hours on Google and about 6 in practice once you add stops, roadworks, fuel and food.

For a 1pm cruise from Queenstown, Luxe Tours says leave by 7:30am at the latest. From Te Anau, 9am is comfortable.

Parking at the terminal

The paid car park near the terminal is charged by the hour and paid by card at the machines. Pay as soon as you park: The NZ Brits said a previous visit ended in a fine, and on this one they were sent to the third, overflow car park. There’s also a free gravel car park at the Deepwater Basin turn, a 25 to 40 minute walk from the terminal depending on who’s timing it.

Allow 40 minutes from the Cleddau Valley lookout to boarding, Luxe Tours says, and up to an hour in January.

Taking a coach

The three coach travellers we watched were all positive. Bani NZ’s RealNZ coach picked up at 7:20am and reached Milford at 1pm; The Beachpackers’ AwesomeNZ day left at 6:30am and was back at sunset. Commentary from the driver came up in all three videos: Bani NZ’s driver covered the birds, the avalanche paths, Lord of the Rings locations and how the road was built. The one complaint was time at the stops. We compare the coach tours, including small group and coach and fly options, on our Queenstown day trips page.

Flying

Scenic flights from Queenstown cross the Southern Alps and either loop over the fiord or land so you can cruise. They save a 10 hour round trip on the road, and the weather cancels them more often than it cancels boats. Flights are compared on their own page.

When to go, how long to stay and where to base yourself

The best time of year

Any month works; each one trades something.

Luxe Tours recommends a tour rather than self-drive in winter, because of ice and closures. Hayliv K went in November and liked the long daylight.

The best time of day

Early or in the middle of the day, depending on where you start. From Te Anau, leaving at first light gets you to Eglinton Valley and Mirror Lakes before the Queenstown coaches arrive at about 10:30am, and onto a late morning boat. From Queenstown, a 1pm sailing is the realistic one.

The Queenstown coach groups mostly sail in the middle of the day, so the terminal is busiest then. Hayliv K left Te Anau at about 5am for sunrise and noted the buses and campervans arriving in numbers by noon. Late afternoon sailings are quieter, but outside summer that means the Milford Road in the dark on the way back.

How long to stay

One day is enough for the cruise and the road stops. Two days lets you add a walk, a kayak or a second try if the first day is clouded in. Milford itself has one place to stay, Milford Sound Lodge, according to Luxe Tours, so most people sleep in Te Anau.

Te Anau or Queenstown as a base

Te Anau, if you’re driving. It halves the road time, puts you at the fuel and food, and lets you be first at the stops. Luxe Tours, a Te Anau operator, makes this case hardest, so weigh it with that in mind. The travellers back it up, though: Travel of Two Halves and Hayliv K both based themselves there, and both did the Te Anau glowworm caves in the evening. Our Te Anau guide covers the town.

Queenstown works if you’re taking a coach. The coach travellers we watched, all starting from Queenstown, were happy with the long day because someone else did the driving. It also leaves the rest of your trip for the other things to do in Queenstown. What we wouldn’t do is drive Queenstown to Milford and back in a day on your own. Hayliv K did a version of it and finished at 1am.

If you only have one day

This is the day we’d plan from Te Anau, built from the timings travellers recorded. From Queenstown, add 2 hours at each end, or let a coach do it.

1. 7:30am. Leave Te Anau with a full tank, lunch and water.
2. 8:15am. Eglinton Valley, ahead of the coaches. Ten minutes in a lay-by.
3. 8:45am. Mirror Lakes boardwalk while the water is still.
4. 9:15am. Knobs Flat for the toilets, then Pop’s View and a look at Christie Falls from the road.
5. 10:00am. Monkey Creek. Fill a bottle, watch for kea.
6. 10:20am. The Homer Tunnel. Wait for the lights, then headlights off.
7. 10:40am. The Chasm, if the bridge is open.
8. 11:00am. Park, pay, walk to the terminal and check in.
9. 11:30am. Cruise, 1 hour 45 minutes to 2 hours, out to the Tasman Sea and under Stirling Falls.
10. 1:30pm. Lunch on the foreshore, then the walk along to Lady Bowen Falls.
11. 2:30pm. Start back. You’re back in Te Anau by about 5pm.

If the morning is clear and the afternoon forecast is wet, skip The Chasm and get on an earlier boat. If it’s wet all day, go anyway and see the falls.

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