Milford Sound

Day 168 (December 13, 2018) – Milford Sound, South Island, New Zealand

We left Queenstown on a road trip that would take us first to Milford Sound and then onward to Mt. Cook. Milford Sound is one of the many fjords at the bottom of New Zealand’s South Island, but it’s the only one you can reach by road which makes it the most accessible. Our first stop was Te Anau, only a couple hours’ drive from Queenstown. We arrived early in the afternoon and took the opportunity to dry our tent out on the shores of Lake Te Anau. We were staying in a hostel that night, and it would be our last night inside for a while. Compared to Queenstown, Te Anau was like a small village. It took us about 10 minutes to walk around the entire town center. We stopped for a beer and then grabbed dinner at an Indian restaurant. Back at the hostel we did some laundry, watched a movie, and called it a night.

Even the sheep stations are picture perfect in New Zealand.

Hanging out with the ducks on Lake Te Anau as we dried out the tent.

The next morning, we picked up lots of groceries and continued driving to Milford Sound. We had a cruise booked for the late afternoon. Our plan was to take our time driving out there, set up the tent somewhere along the way, then continue on our way to Milford. We’d return to the campsite after the cruise was over. It was going to be dusk by then and we wanted to avoid having to set the tent up in the dark.

More ducks on Lake Te Anau as we took a break on our drive up to Milford Sound.

Checking out the campsites around Milford Sound.

The drive out to Milford Sound was beautiful. We checked out all the campsites along the way and settled on one that was near the river in a valley filled with pink and purple flowers. We set the tent up, grabbed a quick lunch, and hit the road again. There are lots of pullovers and stops along the highway. The scenery was stunning, and they give you lots of photo opportunities.

There are millions of these flowers growing in the valleys leading up to Milford Sound. This is where we ended up setting up our tent.

A short stop at Mirror Lakes.

It started raining as we got closer to Milford Sound. Normally rain is not a good thing when you’re trying to spend some time outdoors, but it turned out to be kind of a cool thing in and around Milford Sound. The mountains are steep and rocky and have very little topsoil, so the rainwater comes running down the mountains in thousands of streams and waterfalls. It’s quite a sight to see.

One of the many waterfalls and rivers along the drive.

The rainwater was pouring down the mountains from everywhere around us.

At the Milford Sound dock we boarded our boat and set off on a scenic cruise of the sound. The cruise was pricey but I’m so glad we did it. You really have to get out on the water to appreciate the fjord. It was raining on and off most of the time but all around us where hundreds of waterfalls dumping all their rainwater into the sound. The boat could get up close to the cliff faces and you could appreciate all the plants and trees that survive by just barely holding onto the cliffs. The mountains around the sound were truly enormous.

At the Milford Sound dock.

It doesn't seem possible for so many plants to be growing off the cliff faces. There is more than enough rain to support them though.

Even in the rain the views were beautiful.

I like this photo because you can see one of the cruise ships at the base of the mountain. Those boats aren't small and neither are the mountains.

It’s almost always raining at Milford Sound, but we left the sound and made it out to the Tasman Sea where the weather was dramatically different. It was sunny, cloudless, and the water was a beautiful shade of teal. It was such a nice day out on the ocean while the entrance to the sound was lost in a cover of rain clouds. I would have rather stayed in the nice weather, but we headed back towards the rain. At that south of a latitude there are very few land mases, so when the ocean air hits the huge mountains at the southern end of New Zealand they’re forced upward a release a crazy amount of rain. This weather pattern supports New Zealand’s temperate rain forests, dumps tons of snow on the mountains to feed glaciers, erodes the mountain peaks, and fills the millions of rivers and lakes around the country. Milford Sound was fascinating because you could see this process happening right in front of you.

One of the thousands of waterfalls into the fjord.

We were getting wet from the rain and waterfall spray.

In contrast to Milford Sound, the weather in the Tasman Sea was beautiful. All we needed were some deck chairs and a beer and we could have mistaken ourselves for being somewhere else entirely.

Looking back into Milford Sound.

The obligatory selfie to prove we were there.

After the cruise we were back in the car and returned to our campsite for dinner and sleep. The next morning, we packed up the tent, made our way back to Te Anau for a coffee, and continued on to Lake Dunstan where we set the tent up again. The only reason for stopping here was that it was part way between Milford Sound and Mt. Cook, but it was a really nice campsite on a lake. Even better yet, the campsite was free, and it didn’t rain that night. The next morning, we would get up and finish the drive through Lindis Pass to Mt. Cook.