Guide to Visiting Milford Sound in New Zealand

Milford Sound is the most visited destination in New Zealand and after visiting we completely understand why! The landscape is truly remarkable! It’s also one of the wettest places in the world so prepare to see waterfall after waterfall! Here is our guide to visiting Milford Sound in New Zealand including getting there, how much it costs and if it’s worth making the trip!

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Milford Sound is located in the southwestern corner of the Sound Island of New Zealand. It’s about 120 kilometers from Te Anau and is only accessible by one road. Located in Fiordland National Park there is not much around Milford Sound other than this magnificent sound surrounded by endless mountain peaks!

How to Get to Milford Sound

Regardless of where you’re coming from it’s going to require a lot of driving to get to Milford Sound. From Queenstown it’s about 175 kms (roughly 2 hours) to Te Anau which is the closest town to Milford Sound.

In Te Anau you can find gas, groceries and accommodation options including a couple of campgrounds. From there it’s about 120 kms to Milford Sound on one road. The drive from Te Anau to Milford Sound is a beautiful drive! There are so many places to stop along the way that give you beautiful views of the surrounding mountains, valleys and waterfalls. It’s such a scenic drive you definitely want to give yourself a lot of extra time to make stops!

It took us just under 4 hours to drive from Te Anau to Milford Sound. We left early in the morning so we could really take advantage of the drive there! Although you can make it faster if you choose not to stop but the stops are completely worth it.

5 Places to Stop on the Drive to Milford Sound

This was one of the most scenic drives we did through out our 3 weeks in New Zealand. Here are 5 places to stop along the way that you shouldn’t miss!

1. Eglinton Valley Lookout

This is basically a field next to the road in the middle of the valley. Ahead of you are amazing views looking straight at the mountains in the distance. There is a small area to pull over on the lefthand side of the road.

You’ll probably see other people stopped here because you can get some really beautiful pictures with the mountains in the background!

2. Mirror Lakes

This is a really popular stop along the route. Mirror Lakes got its name because you can see a mirror image of the mountains on the water when conditions are right. We got really lucky when we visited and were able to see the reflection!

There is a wooden pathway that follows the water that you can walk. Both ends connect back to the road and the whole thing takes maybe 5 minutes to walk.

Because it’s sitting water there were so many bugs here! We put a lot of bug spray on at this stop. We really like these bug spray wipes because they are really easy to apply!

3. Lake Gunn

This beautiful lake is a good spot to get out if you need a stretch. Or if you’re hungry this would be a perfect spot to sit outside and have lunch! There is an easy walk around the lake that you can do if you have extra time.

4. Pop’s View- Hollyford Valley

If you’re visiting on a clear day without too much fog you can get beautiful views from Pop’s View looking out over the Hollyford Valley. At this point in the drive though you’re likely to encounter some fog and/or rain. We got some really clear views onto the valley when we first stopped which were covered by the time we left.

There is a small viewing platform so this is a quick stop. This is another place where the sandflies were really bad!

5. Monkey Creek

Monkey Creek is such a picturesque stop! The creek is surrounded by cliffs on either side looking straight at a snowcapped mountain. I can’t imagine a more scenic place to fill up your water bottle!

About 20 minutes after Monkey Creek is the Homer Tunnel. This one lane tunnel extends for 1.2 kms and was opened less than 70 years ago. Because it’s one lane sometimes traffic can build up around the tunnel as each direction has to wait for the other to go.

How to See Milford Sound

The road into Milford Sound brings you to a small town area. There is a hotel, two parking lots and a large building at the water where cruises leave from and that’s pretty much it. There are no gas stations so plan ahead and fill up on gas in Te Anau so that you have enough to drive there and back.

Milford Sound is a large inlet surrounded by towering cliffs that leads out to the ocean. The only road to explore this area is the one road that goes from Te Anau to Milford Sound. So exploring the area around Milford Sound by car isn’t an option.

To see Milford Sound your options are to see it from the water or from the air. You can take a boat cruise or even kayak around. If your budget allows you can also take a scenic flight and look down at all the cliffs and waterfalls. However, seeing Milford Sound by air can be very expensive!

The more affordable option is to see it from the water. Boat cruises leave from the dock regularly. There are a few different companies that offer boat cruises. Some include more things than others and therefore cost a little more.

We took the Maiden of Milford, a Jucy Cruise. For both of us it cost $100 USD or about $50 USD per person. It was a 1.5 hour cruise that stopped at a couple different waterfalls and included some information about the names of places along the way.

Honestly we picked that one because it was the cheapest option but it ended up being the perfect one for us!
We booked it online the day before and had no trouble getting spots even in high season.
There were only maybe 40 other people on our cruise so we all had plenty of space! That definitely made the experience a lot better so we didn’t feel like we were squished on a crowded boat!

Travel Truth: Our boat cruise was at 3:00 PM which was a perfect time! We left Te Anau around 10:30 AM and were able to stop whenever we wanted! There was a little traffic outside the Homer Tunnel which also wasn’t a problem because we had plenty of time. We parked around 2:30 PM which gave us time to make lunch before getting on our boat. Consider picking an afternoon cruise so you can enjoy the drive that morning.

Is Milford Sound Worth It?

Honestly we hesitated going to Milford Sound. We know it’s a really popular spot in New Zealand and we knew it was probably going to be beautiful because we had yet to see anything in NZ that wasn’t amazing. But it’s a lot of driving to get there. It’s also one of the only things we did in New Zealand that we had to pay for and it was pretty expensive once you consider the fuel to get there and back plus the cost of the cruise itself.

But we’re so glad we did it! The nature in this area is incredible! A place that before 1953 didn’t even have a road connecting it to the rest of the South Island. The cliffs on either side are enormous and honestly it’s so hard to capture in pictures just how big they are. You’ll pass so many waterfalls dropping water that remains completely untouched by people.

Yes, visiting Milford Sound is worth it! It’s worth the money and the long day of driving because it’s an incredible place! Our cruise wasn’t crowded or super touristy. We got to see this beautiful place in a way that we really enjoyed!

3 Things to Bring to Milford Sound

There are a few things that you definitely want to make sure to bring with you to Milford Sound especially if you’re going to get out on the water. We lucked out and had a bright, sunny day but you never know what kind of weather you’re going to get!

1. Rain Jacket

Because this area is one of the wettest areas on the island, there is always a chance it will rain while you’re visiting. So you want to make sure to have a rain jacket just in case! These rain jackets are very inexpensive and pack down really small! They also are great to use as a wind breaker because the cruise on the sound is incredibly windy!

2. Fleece or Warm Layer

It was really windy (just look at the picture of my hair) on our boat cruise so I quickly put on my fleece and kept it on the whole time. It felt a lot cooler out on the water so we were both glad to have a warm layer. Dave loves this one because it’s a little thinner and he’s always hot.

3. Camera Strap

You definitely want to bring your camera for your boat cruise on Milford Sound! But our cruise was so windy that we literally had a hard time standing up at times. I was trying to take pictures and videos with my phone but was scared to death I was going to drop it in the water. Dave has this camera strap on the camera which made us feel so much better about using our Sony camera. That way we were able to still get some amazing pictures without risking dropping the expensive camera!