Milford Sound: 1-Day Trip to World Heritage Site

In addition to adventurous sports and town activities, there’s still one thing you can do when you are in Queenstown - visiting Milford Sound. It’s a fiord in the world-heritage recognized site Te Wahipounamu, which covers many famous National Parks, glaciers and mountains in the South West of South Island.

Table of Contents

• 4 ways to get to Milford Sound and the costs

• My experience

  • What the tour looks like

  • What I felt during the journey

4 ways to get to Milford Sound and the costs

If you look it up, there are basically 4 ways to get to Milford South:

1. Self-driving

2. Shuttle bus

3. Attending a tour

4. Airplane package

Initially I was considering self-driving since it’s more flexible and people said the drive there (94 route) is just as beautiful as the view on cruise. (Ooops! I have different perspective here. I’ve done a road trip in Atacama, Chile, where the view there is more unique and mind-blowing in my opinion. I’ll share my experience in the near future!) But to save some energy and enjoy the trip more, I chose a tour in the end after some cost calculation. Here’s how I break down the cost and do comparison:

Of course money-saver like me won’t choose the expensive airplane package 😂. And since I didn’t want to consume too much energy on driving, I only had shuttle bus and tour to choose. After doing some research and calculation, I found out shuttle bus isn’t that cheap actually. So attending a tour is the best option.

I found a tour on Klook, which isn’t the best service I would say, so I don’t bother providing a link here for you. (I bumped into a rude checkin lady:/) Just check out those platforms providing tours and review the comments, I’m sure you’ll find a good one:)

My experience

What the tour looks like

During the 4 hour drive to Milford Sound, the driver stopped at a town called Te Anau, where people usually stay if they plan a 2 day trip to Milford Sound. There wasn’t much to see here, but if you wan to buy some honey, here’s another place that you can check out in addition to Jackson Orchards. I personally bought 2 cans of honey (not Mānuka kind) from a cafe in a store here called Kiwi Country, which costs $12NZ each for 250g.

On the cruise, they provided us with a proper lunch box, and that is when your exploration time begins. You’d also need some luck here as well since it rains a lot and unexpectedly. I was lucky enough to take some photos without showering by rain for 30 minutes, which I was satisfied 😌

What I felt during the journey

It's really interesting to see and feel the similarities and differences created by the climate and terrain in different countries. On the way to Milford Sound reminds me the scenery I saw in Atacama, Chile and in Scotland, the UK.

The vegetation in Milford Sound transition from wet grass to dry land, so does it in Atacama. The factors rely not only on the level of humidity but also the height; the weather in Scotland is often unpredictable, so is it in Milford Sound. It can rain unexpectedly in the 2 places.

Out of curiosity, I did some research and found out Milford Sound is one of the most humid regions in the world, it rains an average of 182 days a year. In addition to that, New Zealand and the UK actually share the same climate - Temperate Marine Climate and the height of the mountains in Milford Sound and Scotland are both around 1,300m-1,500m.That’s super interesting, isn’t it!

Anyway, next week I’m gonna share the last chapter of my New Zealand trip - Lake Wanaka and Tekapo. Stay tuned 😉