Fly Cruise Fly Milford Sound

I am sure that Milford Sound is on any first-timer’s list of places to go when they are in New Zealand.

Even if they are not yours, you would have heard of it.

New Zealand’s most stunning natural attraction…home to the seals, dolphins and penguins…forest-clad cliffs, mountain peaks and inky dark waters…most beautiful when it rains…blah blah

Oh yes, I have heard of Milford Sound. But it was not on my must-go places when I have so many other places to prioritise.

That was more than a year ago, in Dec 2019, before the pandemic struck.

Anyhoo, with covid in our presence, time extends, and so does my visa. From six months to nine, and subsequently a year and a half. Who knows when I would finally head back home when new strains and new waves of the virus kept erupting at unexpected times?

Getting to Milford Sound

Options: Self-drive, shuttle, flight

Self-drive

I have no idea how beautiful/ stunning/ dangerous the 1 – 2 hours 240 km route to Milford Sound from Te Anau is.

Some say you might be the sole vehicle travelling down the road with towering mountains by the side. 

A group of friends crashed their car on the same stretch one wet winter day. Black ice. It was the rock wall or sheer drop, and they chose the former.

Shuttle

If driving is not your forte, you could book a shuttle from Te Anau or Queenstown with big companies like Jucy, Real Journey and the like, or look for last-minute deals on bookme.co.nz.

Flight

It is one fun way to travel.

As with most of the unheard-of activities in New Zealand, we garnered this idea from another fellow WHV.

We booked the activity through bookme.co.nz and rescheduled it once due to bad weather. We ultimately did the flight, climbed the Isthmus peak and skydived within the short sunny period in Wanaka, last June.

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Our Excursion

Our tour started at noon from Wanaka airport.

Given the week-long bad weather condition, we had to check back with the operator the night before to confirm that the tour is going on as scheduled.

The operator took our weights and organised us for our flight: six passengers and the pilot per plane. We were grouped with a family of four. In total, 12 of us were heading to the sound.

No words could express how the 15 mins or so of a flight from Wanaka to Milford Sound is. It’s best to check out my timelapse in the video! We flew over Clutha River, Lake Wanaka and the snow-capped Southern Alps in Mt Aspiring National Park.

A shuttle ferried us from the airport to the dock once we have landed at the airport.

We were issued a ticket to the cruise and told to assemble at the pier where one of the smallest cruise ships was docked.

Both the flight and the cruise were managed by different operators. But at NZD 349, it is worth the value and hassle.  You could get the cruise for NZD 50, but that is with a big operator, on a huge cruise, with hundred other people. Disclaimer: The prices were during covid times when tourists were scarce, and operators were handing out massive discounts.

Complimentary tea and coffee were provided within the fancy cruise, and you won’t have to worry about missing any sights in the lounge room when the walls were made of glass. Most passengers would have chosen to hover outside, on the upper deck, at the bow or the stern.

As with all Milford Sound cruises, there is a fixed itinerary to follow.

Our cruise travelled in a clockwise direction, first by the right side of the sound, turning as it neared the Tasman Sea, and then heading back to the pier via the left side of the sound. Most of the interesting bits of the two-hour-long tour were nestled on the left side of the sound. 

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My Thoughts

Milford Sound is pretty no doubt but not the best. It simply did not arouse the feeling of awe in me. 

If I were to jog my memory, getting sprayed by Stirling Falls was the first that I could recall, and I would need several moments to remember what else was in the sound, i.e. seals, Bowen Falls, Tasman Sea.

I think the most memorable aspect of this trip was the flight rather than the cruise.

Don’t let this deter you!

But if you do have an additional day and maybe a bit more money to spare, try doing a 2D1N cruise on Doubtful Sound instead. Will write more about it when time permits~

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Video