Oceania, South Island, Travel in New Zealand

Milford Sound Fjord: A Day Trip from Queenstown

Milford Sound is a fjord in the southwest of New Zealand. It is one of the most popular places to visit in New Zealand. It is a long drive from the nearest most accessible city: Queenstown.

Since Ben had a work trip in Queenstown, I finished my job a day earlier and met him there. We did a day trip from Queenstown to Milford Sound with a tour company.

There are so many Milford Sound tour companies and we chose Southern Discoveries, because it offers a buffet lunch on the cruise (since Ben wanted it so much 😅). This is a couch + cruise tour and costs NZ$199 per person, but we booked it for NZ$179 from bookme (can be even cheaper if book earlier) which is a good price for a full day tour.

This is our first time visiting Milford Sound although I have visited Doubtful Sound a few years ago. Doubtful Sound is a more remote fjord in New Zealand and has a better reputation than Milford Sound fjord for the scenery.

The road scenery

Our driver was Paul who had a strong personality. He didn’t wait for the customers who were late for 15 minutes, though he picked them up in the end because the company asked him to do so. He was very exaggerating and Ben was very interested in listening to his story. There are a few stops along the way for us to take some photos.

It is about 4-5 hours for one way on the coach from Queenstown to Milford Sound. The scenery along the way is very “New Zealand”.

I like this Mirror Lake very much! It is so cute that they deliberately put the sign in reverse so that it will come out correctly on the lake (only when it is not windy).

The river is very pure. Many people drank water from the river including myself, but Ben didn’t because he doesn’t like to drink water from the river. 😑

And then, we get off the bus for the waterfall while the bus is still on the road waiting for the traffic light. Paul said we only have 2 minutes to take photos and we must immediately get on the bus when he honks – it is actually quite scary because he can’t wait for us even if we were only a few seconds late!

We also stopped for the mountain view when driving downhill.

Milford Sound Fjord Cruise

When we reached the wharf, we waited for about 20 minutes before boarding the cruise.

The cruise journey is about 2 hours, including a buffet lunch.

The included buffet lunch is mainly Asian food and the taste is quite good. We can tell that the cruise is targeted at Asian as most people on the cruise are Chinese tourists. It is actually a bit scary to have the buffet as it is so crowded and some people are very aggressive. Anyway, we didn’t eat too much because we wanted to have more time to enjoy the view!

Milford Sound is actually not a sound, instead, it is a fjord. A sound is created by a river while a fjord is created by a glacier. Milford Sound must be crying because most of the people call it the wrong name!

The waterfall is stunning.

There are a few seals in the photo below if you look closely enough. Unfortunately, we were not able to see any dolphins on this trip.

In a nutshell…

For me, all the fjords look the same… (sorry!) Ben showed me a photo that he took from a fjord in Norway, and I thought that was the photo that we just took in Milford Sound. 😆

To be honest, the road scenery on the way to Milford Sound surprises me more than the Milford Sound itself. I wish I could drive so I can stop whenever I want, but I am also glad that I didn’t because some parts of the road are very steep that might not be safe for me to drive.

I was exhausted during this trip. The tour is about 12 hours: about 9 hours for the coach, 2 hours for the cruise, and 1 hour for stopping in between.

This is a happy trip for me with Ben. The scenery is beautiful although… I almost threw up. Due to the motion sickness. I think once is enough for me. 🙂

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