Guide to Cruising the Milford Sound + Driving Milford Road
With its narrow fjord, tall verdant mountains, rainforest, and rushing waterfalls, Milford Sound is one of New Zealand’s most visited attractions. In this guide, we share our full experience cruising the Milford Sound as well as driving Milford Road, along with planning tips and lots of photos!
About Milford Sound
Milford Sound is located in Fjordland National Park on the South Island of New Zealand. All along the western coast, fjords carve into the coast that borders the Tasman Sea. These fjords were created as a result of glaciers carving out valleys that were eventually filled with water. Today, we can cruise these waters and look up at the majestic cliffs as well as seek out wildlife that call the fjordlands home.
When we went
February 2025. This is the middle of summer in New Zealand, so expect pleasant days. We did not experience any rain while here and temperatures were consistently in the 60s-70s, cooler in the early morning and at night.
Where we stayed
We based in Te Anau while visiting Fjordland National Park, staying at Radford’s on the Lake. Radford’s is a lovely hotel with large sliding doors that open to views of beautiful Lake Te Anau. The proprietor was friendly and helpful and shared her opinion on stops along Milford Road, which was greatly appreciated! Te Anau is considered the gateway to Milford Sound, as it is the closest town, so staying here was logistically best for what we had planned while here.
Getting to Milford Sound
There are a few ways to reach Milford Sound. You can arrive by helicopter or a small plane, and we did see many planes flying above and landing at the little airstrip right at Milford Sound during our visit. This is the most expensive option, of course. By doing it this way, you also miss the scenic views when driving Milford Road.
Visiting Milford Sound on a tour is another popular option, especially if staying a bit further away, such as in Queenstown, although tours are also run from Te Anau. A bus ride eliminates the need to self-drive, which is a good option if you don’t have a vehicle.
Finally, you have the option to self-drive, which is what we did as we had a rental car for our duration in New Zealand. With self-driving, you can stop where you want on Milford Road and run your own timeline to get to Milford Sound. If self-driving, it makes most logistical sense to stay in Te Anau as it is the closest town to Milford Sound, at about 75 miles away.
MILFORD ROAD STATS & INFO
- Length of drive each way from Te Anau: Approximately 75 miles
- Amount of time to drive: At least 2 hours each way
- There is no cell phone coverage along Milford Road, so plan ahead.
- Road conditions: Very good. We did not experience any poor road conditions, just some areas were windy and narrow, so you have to take it slow.
Map of Milford Road with stops along the way
NOTE: This is a “what we did” itinerary, which makes it easy for you to follow along or tweak and adjust based on your specific interests. We began our drive at our hotel, Radford’s on the Lake and drove all the way to Milford Sound. All stops are shared below.
Driving Milford Road – Our Experience
The proprietor at our hotel gave us a map of Milford Road upon check in and highlighted her favorite places on the route, so we took her advice and stopped where she recommended. She also suggested a minimum of 3 hours to drive the one way on Milford Road before your cruise. This allows ample time to meet the cruise while allowing time for stops along the way. I like to play it safe with time, so we actually gave ourselves 3.5 hours and it was perfect.
Our cruise departed at 10:30 am, so we headed out at 7:00 am. Our first stop was Sandfly Cafe to grab take away coffee for the drive.
Sandfly Cafe, a great breakfast spot in Te Anau
From Te Anau we headed north on State Highway 94, aka Milford Road. Our first stop was:
Lake Mistletoe
The morning light at Lake Mistletoe was just magnificent. From here it was just a short drive to the next stop:
Te Anau Downs
Te Anau Downs is the beginning of the popular Milford Track, often touted as “the finest walk in the world”.
Lake Te Anau was also beautiful here early in the morning.
From here it was about 16 miles to the next stop:
Eglington Valley
There is ample pull off space on the side of State Highway 94 as you approach Eglington Valley. Eglington Vally is a wide open valley with mountain peaks in the distance. You feel very small in the vast space!
Mirror Lakes
Mirror Lakes is one of the most popular stops on Milford Road. We easily found parking along the road, but there were large tour busses stopping here as well, so you will definitely be sharing the boardwalk.
The morning light created beautiful reflections in the water.
We also saw these huge baby birds in the nest!
A small food truck was selling coffee and provisions here as well. If you want to grab a snack to go, this is it as there are no other concessions on Milford Road. Continuing on, the next stop was about 22 miles ahead:
Monkey Creek
The views were getting more dramatic with every twist and turn at this point. We didn’t stop at the official Monkey Creek pullover, but a short distance ahead, which is where this photo was taken:
Our final stop before arriving at Milford Sound was:
The Chasm
Featuring a series of rushing waterfalls, this hike to the lookout area takes approximately 10 minutes to reach. Along the way, it feels like you’re in a movie with the massive ferns and palms surrounding you during the hike.
In 2020, a massive flood took out the bridge, so you can no longer walk across it to get a bird-eye view of the chasm. Now, you can only see the rushing water with barely-a-glimpse of the chasm down into these eroded rocks.
The end of the trail at the Chasm, as the stairs no longer lead to the bridge.
This was the last stop before we made it to Milford Sound, which was just 6 miles from here.
Arriving at Milford Sound
We arrived into the Milford Sound area at 9:40 am. We still had to find and pay for parking, which we did in the lot in front of the Milford Sound Visitor’s Center.
From here it was a good 15 minute walk from the parking lot to the Milford Sound Visitor Terminal where we got our tickets to board the boat. We lined up outside, behind others who had already done so. Once they opened the line to board, we handed our ticket in and went straight to the top deck for unobstructed views.
Cruising Milford Sound – Our Experience
We enjoyed this three hour cruise of the Milford Sound. We used Real NZ, one of the most popular tour operators in New Zealand. The staff were friendly and efficient and the vessel was in great condition. We highly recommend doing the cruise with Real NZ.
The cruise took us along the length of the fjord while the guide on board shared all about what we were seeing along the way. We got up close to waterfalls and felt the spray, saw seals sunbathing on rocks, and took in the incredible beauty of the fjord as we slowly cruised. Sharing the experience is best done in photos!
Seals sunbathing on the rocks!
We got close enough to feel the spray
Besides the awesome views and commentary from our guide, there was a fabulous snack bar serving a variety of beverages and food. We enjoyed cappuccinos to start and then loved this charcuterie while cruising:
Overall Thoughts
The Milford Sound has been named one of the most beautiful places in the world many times, but did it live up to the hype for us? New Zealand is full of incredible beauty but the Milford Sound was not as high on the list for us as other places we visited. It is beautiful for sure and the entire experience was great but we found Roy’s Peak, for example, a lot more magnificent in terms of stunning scenery. We also have cruised the fjords of Norway so maybe our experience was a little jaded due to having already cruised majestic fjords there.
The area of the Milford Sound close to the parking area was at low tide and it smelled swampy, although this was the height of summer, so maybe it was just the time of year we visited.
We originally planned to picnic here after the cruise but the swampy smell and the sandflies make it less than desirable so we pulled over at a lovely rest area on the way back on Milford Road.
If you are in the area I think a Milford Sound cruise is a great experience. We just found it a little overhyped. Although we are glad we visited, we found other areas in New Zealand much more impressive. We really want to be honest and transparent when sharing our experiences here!
On the way back to Te Anau, we stopped at this beautiful picnic area:
Continuing on the drive on Milford Road, we were stopped for a while due to a New Zealand traffic jam – inevitable sheep crossing!
A New Zealand traffic jam!
Read more!
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Our time in New Zealand was part of a large trip to Sydney, Australia. For more information on Sydney check out the following articles:
