Hey everyone! Lauren here to tell you about our experience at the beautiful and famous Milford Sound!
Milford Sound is the most popular fiord in New Zealand, and it is not particularly close to any towns. There is one road in and out of Milford Sound, and so in preparation for the journey, we made our way to a small town called Lumsden. Lumsden is TINY, and it is still a 2.5-3 hour drive from Milford Sound.
Typically, the closest and most developed place to stay before heading to the sound is a town called Te Anau. However, we had trouble finding affordable accommodation in Te Anau, likely since we waited until the last minute to book anything. Luckily, we found something in Lumsden.
The drive from Lumsden to Milford Sound
We had a very slow start to our morning, and didn't end up leaving for Milford Sound until nearly 9:30 AM. Since we had such a late start, we decided to skip all of the viewpoints and points of interest along the Milford Highway on our drive to the sound. There were several tour buses stopped at various points of the highway, and we were hoping there would be less people on our way back!
The drive had gorgeous views the entire way. There were lakes, mountains, and beautiful grassy plains in the valleys. After a few hours of driving, we came to the Homer Tunnel.
The Homer Tunnel is an incredible 1.2 km (0.75 miles) long road tunnel that pierces through the Darran Mountain range, and is only one lane. This means that there is a stop signal on either side of the tunnel that only allows people to pass from one side at a time in intervals of 20 minutes. The line when we approached the tunnel didn't seem too long. There was a counter sign that showed how much time we had to wait. Since we had some time, we decided to get out of our car and take some pictures of the scenery.
Cruise Booking and Poking around
When we arrived we went to Milford Sound, we parked our car and headed into the information center to book a fjord cruise. We ended up booking the Southern Discoveries Encounter Nature Cruise, which is the longest cruise available. The price for both of us was $150 NZD.
We had some time before our cruise left, so we walked on some of the trails near the information center, which sits on the southern end of Milford Sound. The view was incredible, and there were several moss covered trees. The way the light peaked through the greenery of the trees was simply mesmerizing.
The Cruise
After walking the trails, we headed to the cruise launch point. After checking in for our cruise, we ate our packed lunches at some picnic tables near the boat dock. Our cruise boarded 10 minutes before departure, and soon we were cruising the ocean beneath the cascading peaks of Milford Sound!
The guide gave us some information about the discovery of Milford Sound and wildlife often observed in the fiord. On our cruise, we saw New Zealand fur seals, bottlenose dolphins, and tons of birds!
Our guide said on rainy days, Milford Sound has even more waterfalls cascading down the cliffs. Despite having beautiful clear skies, we still saw numerous waterfalls across the fiord. I can't imagine what it looked like on a rainy day!
Our boat even rode into one of the waterfalls. We had the option to go inside and stay dry, or get soaked in the waterfall. We opted to drench ourselves in the water. It was pretty chilly, but how often do you get the opportunity to shower in a Milford Sound waterfall?
Since it was an Encounter Nature cruise, our guide went into detail on the unique subsurface habitat in the sound. Since Milford Sound receives high rainfall, and saltwater has a higher density than freshwater, the surface of Milford Sound has a layer of freshwater sitting on top of the salty ocean water. This freshwater layer contains tannins leached from the vegetation in the surrounding rainforest, which make this freshwater darker in color. These dark tannins filter out a lot of the sunlight entering the water, which creates the perfect conditions for a variety of black coral to flourish at depths of as shallow as 10 metres. Black corals are typically found much deeper in the water column. significantly closer to the surface than usual. Neat!!
The Drive Back to Lumsden: Stopping at the Sights
When we got back we headed to the car and back to our hotel/Airbnb in Lumsden. Since we skipped all of the sights along the Milford Highway on our drive to the fiord, we decided to stop at them on the way back. We had picked up a pamphlet at the information center at Milford Sound, and used it as a reference guide to know what places to stop on our drive.
The Chasm
First we stopped at The Chasm which was a river that eroded an area into a deep chasm. The walk was super short, and went over a bridge to look up the river, and down into the water eroded plunge pool.
Monkey Creek
Next we stopped at Monkey Creek. The creek was right off the road, and sat in a valley. Monkey Creek frequently has really high water quality, and can be drunk right from the stream! There are also frequent sightings of the rare whio (blue duck) and Kea (the endangered alpine parrot).
We didn't see any kea or blue ducks. We also didn't drink water from the stream because the sun was starting to dip below the mountains and we wanted to see some of the other sights before then.
Pop's View
Next we stopped at Pop's View, which was right off of the road. The mountains here were covered in trees, which contrasted many of the surrounding rocky peaks.
Mirror Lakes
After that was Mirror Lakes, which are known to reflect the surrounding scenery when the water is calm. The walk to Mirror Lakes was very short and paved. At the end of the path were small platforms above the water, which had perfect reflections of the mountains above. Ducks were swimming in the water, and would occasionally disrupt the reflection of the mountains. We spent quite a bit of time here taking photos and admiring the way the ducks were changing the reflection of the mountains.
Eglinton Valley
The last sight we stopped at along Milford Highway was Eglinton Valley. The sun was starting to settle below the mountains, so we snapped some pictures and then watched the sun drop below the peaks. The color of the tall grass in the plains below the valley seemed to change colors completely, shifting from a warm yellow to a cooler tone.
Here's a fun fact about Eglinton Valley since Gerrod and I are both big Lord of the Rings fans: Several areas in the Eglinton Valley were locations in the Lord of the Rings movies, and the Eglinton Mountains surrounding the valley represented the Misty Mountains in the Fellowship of the Ring!
Dinner time
After taking photos in Eglinton Valley, we headed to Te Anau to get some dinner. We went to a local cafe/pizzeria and enjoyed some pizza and garlic bread before continuing back to our accommodations in Lumsden, where we reminisced on the beauty we just encountered at Milford sound!
Until next time!
Lauren (and Gerrod)
