Milford Sound

Planes, trains and automobiles…wait, scratch that. Buses, boats and helicopters… that’s how the day went. Considered to be an eighth wonder of the world and part of the Te Wahipounamu Unesco World Heritage site, Milford Sound was on our absolute must do list while in Queenstown.

For the record, it did not disappoint. We started the trip with a four hour bus ride to Fiordland National Park.

Garston, New Zealand

On the way, we made stops in Garston and Te Anau. Garston is New Zealand’s most inland village with a population of a little over 100.

Te Anu, New Zealand

Te Anau is a little bigger and is the gateway to Fiordland National Park and Milford Sound. Getting from Te Anau to Milford Sound was an hour and forty five minutes of amazing, natural beauty. We stopped at local store and bought food to feed our new alpaca friends.

As we made our way through the Fiordland National Park, we passed mountains, rivers and waterfalls. In addition, we drove through the Homer tunnel, a 3/4 mile tunnel straight through a mountain.

We were fortunate enough to see what I thought was some of the most beautiful scenery in the world. Then we stopped at Milford Sound and boarded a boat for an hour and a half cruise for more jaw dropping views.

The day could not have been a better one for the trip. Milford Sound can get around 220 days of rain every year and today was not one of them. It was partly sunny and a little windy and cool but at least no rain. Our cruise around Milford Sound took us us out to the Tasman Sea stopping to view fur seals and waterfalls. One of the first waterfalls we stopped at was Stirling Falls. Milford Sound’s second tallest waterfall and is said to have healing properties because of the minerals.