The Road to Milford Sound

Milford Sound has been one of my most anticipated stops since we first started talking about visiting New Zealand almost a year ago. Every video I saw of this was breathtaking. And, this stop did not disappoint.

One part of what makes Milford Sound so amazing is actually the drive to get there. It’s two hours from the closest town with gas (Te Anau), so you need to prepare for that. Also, the only place to stay is the Milford Lodge, which only has space for 20 camper vans. Most visitors come for the day from Queenstown or Te Anau. We booked way ahead and had a camper van site at the Milford Lodge for two nights so that we could take our time here. 

Like I said, drive was an event in itself. There are a number of stopping off points: Eglington Valley, Mirror Lake, The Divide, Monkey Creek, The Chasm … and many more. It’s a two-hour drive, but we estimated it would take closer to five to stop and gawk. Um, I mean, gaze in blissful adoration of God’s creation. 

Here are some shots of some stops along the way:

On one stop we finally saw a Kea bird. This is the world’s only alpine parrot. We were really excited. They are curious and if you build a formation of rocks they will come over and see what you are doing. However, they are a bit destructive too as we found out when one decided our RV would make a good snack. 

Now, we are getting close and I don’t really know how to talk about Milford Sound. It was unlike any place I’ve ever been. I didn’t know it was possible to see over 1,000 waterfalls in a day. The cascades rushed from above, and beside, and around us. In every direction you looked, there was a waterfall. The deeper you went into Milford Sound, there were still more waterfalls. The clouds would rise and then fall, revealing still more waterfalls. I felt the mist of them on my face for two days. I think our perpetual expression was something like this. 

Like many other drives in the South Island, the road was narrow and hugged countless cliff sides. This had the added challenge of loads of tour buses and also dozens, if not hundreds, of foreign drivers (us included…) Then you add in how distractingly beautiful it was … I don’t know how Tom didn’t wreck. 

This is a video of us coming out of the Homer Tunnel and our first look at the land of waterfalls. 

From that point, we had to pull over a lot. 

Here are pics and video from our drive into Milford, as well as our return, two days later, in the rain. We were mesmerized both times.

I’ll do a separate post on our full day in Milford Sound.