When someone mentions Te Anau what's the first thing that comes to your mind?
Probably Milford Sound right? Fair enough too, Te Anau is the perfect base for anyone wanting to see Milford Sound in all it's beauty. There are multiple companies offering guided tours from Te Anau to Milford Sound, stopping along the way at all the most popular scenic attractions and then linking up with a cruise once you arrive in Milford Sound. This is a brilliant way to go about seeing the area, but is it the best?
Over the New Year holiday period we tried both, driving ourselves From Te Anau to Milford Sound one day and doing the 9 hour fully guided tour and boat cruise with Cheeky Kiwi Tours the following day.
We'll run through where we went, how we found the experience, and give you some of the pros and cons of driving yourself vs taking a guided tour below!
Being based in Te Anau, and having our own vehicle was a decision we were very thankful for making. Being able to do day trips to Lake Manapouri, checking out the start of The Kepler Track, and of course driving ourselves down the iconic Milford Road to Milford Sound.
Key points-
115km from Te Anau to Milford Sound (1.5hrs no stops)
Highly recommend giving yourself at least 3 hours to enjoy all the stops along the way if driving yourself, could easily spend much longer than 3 hours)
Weather conditions and Peak Tourism season can heavily impact the time required on the road.
As one of the wettest areas in the entire country, be prepared for wet weather, maybe even hope for it if you want to see the entire area come to life with literally hundreds of waterfalls!
Bring bug spray! (Just like most places in New Zealand)
Are you strapped for time? Want a straightforward side by side comparison?
Head straight to our simplified comparison here
Or
click here for our Tour Guided Day
click here for our Self Driven Day
Self Driven (Te Anau - Milford Sound)
Shortcuts to each stop-
We started our morning at Te Anau Lakeview Holiday Park with a simple breakfast and a stop off at the local supermarket for some lunch and snack supplies, we began our drive to Milford Sound at around 11am (by the time we had made a solid plan).
Leaving so late in the morning turned out to be one of the best decisions we could've made. We managed to arrive at each of our destinations either just as a tour group was leaving or long enough before the next one arrived to enjoy each stop off with next to nobody else present. As a keen photographer this made Milos job far less stressful than it could've been had there been dozens of people around.
Now for the stop offs for our self driven trip-
Eglinton Valley
Typically the first of many stops on your drive from Te Anau to Milford, we stopped on our way back home as it was less busy and the lighting was a bit nicer for photography.
Eglinton Valley was originally carved out by glaciers hundreds of thousands of years ago, now to be filled with low lying Beech forest and a valley floor filled with amazing golden tussocks. The valley is a favourite for photographers and we could certainly see why, with 360 degree views and the shallow Eglinton River flowing through the valley.
Mirror Lakes
Our first stop along the way was the Mirror Lakes (We stopped at Eglinton Valley on the way back to Te Anau as there were multiple tour coaches there on our way in)
We had read from multiple sources that Mirror Lakes was a photographers paradise in the right conditions (No wind and no ducks), unfortunately the wind was just up enough to distort the reflections of the Earl Mountains in the lakes and multiple ducks made made it even tougher to get the famous reflection photo. We can imagine this would be a magic stop off under the right conditions but sadly we weren't in luck and spent little time here before heading to our next destination, Falls creek. We definitely still recommend stopping here in windy conditions as the mountain views are great and there are multiple information signs worth reading!
Pops View
Another great stop with views of the Hollyford Valley and surrounding lush forrests is Pops View.
The name is a dedication to Robert Alistair Andrew, who sadly died in an avalanche in the area in 1983. It's a small viewpoint and carpark on the right hand side of the road. We stopped here for a few photos and really enjoyed the views, made even more enjoyable having the entire spot to ourselves. This is supposedly another great spot to see Kea although we didn't come across any here, definitely a spot worth checking out on your drive through to Milford.
Falls Creek
Falls Creek was a stop that we hadn't seen mentioned in many places online or through word of mouth, and after stopping there we wondered why!
With one of the only year round flowing waterfalls in the area literally right on the side of the road, and a magical river flowing down the other side of the road, we really enjoyed stopping here.With a perfect man made viewpoint of the Waterfall you'll have no trouble setting up a tripod here to capture the silky flow of the water.
Plenty of photos were taken here and we were even lucky enough to come across our first kea of the trip in the carpark. It's important to be really careful here as you have to cross the road to get to the waterfall and traffic can be quite busy and hard to see coming. We ended up spending around half an hour here and recommend adding it to your list of places to stop.
Homer Tunnel
One of the most well known tunnels in the country, a stop off whether you like it or not, and the perfect place to see a Kea!
Homer Tunnel is an engineering masterpiece, started in the great depression during 1935, at 1.2km long, a 1:10 gradient and cutting through solid rock, it took 19 years to complete. As you can imagine, conditions were extremely tough for the workers. Facing extremely cold winters and long days and weeks, it's a wonder only 2 lives were lost.The tunnel is one way and uses a traffic light system, so you will highly likely be forced to wait for oncoming traffic to come through before it's your turn.
Other than the history of the tunnel, the views are amazing on the Te Anau side and coming through the Milford side they are simply magical. With waterfalls (after rain) and sheer rock cliff faces surrounding you all around, this is the highlight of the drive for many people.
Milford Sounds Foreshore Walk (Including the Famous Milford Swing)-
A short 30 minute walk through beech forest and along the sandy foreshore area of Milford Sound, this is a relaxing walk to do after arriving in Milford Sound. Finding a park in Milford is easy if you're willing to pay the $20 a day parking fee, if not you may struggle to find a park. ( we recommend splashing the $20 as the area you will explore is well worth it.
On a clear day you'll enjoy some spectacular views of Mitre Peak from this walk.
The Milford Swing- The swing is accessible from the foreshore walk and is easily found if you head off to the right of the track after passing the first small bridge, just make sure you're not treading on bush and walk along the beach area until you find the swing (Enjoy your photo opportunity!)
Now that we've covered our self driven trip, i'll mention a few points of difference that may help in making your decision between self driven and tour guided trips to Milford Sound.
Guided 9hr Tour- (Te Anau - Milford, including cruise)
The day after our self driven trip to Milford Sound we did the 9 hour full day tour from Te Anau to Milford with Cheeky Kiwi Travel, the tour included a Milford Sound Cruise with Cruise Milford NZ. It was a magnificent sunny day made even better with a delicious packed lunch and an extremely knowledgable tour guide.
The main difference that made us go with Cheeky Kiwi Tours was the opportunity for a more intimate experience, instead of a large tour bus our tour was done in a small passenger van, with only about 10 of us on the tour this made for a really enjoyable experience.
Stop Offs-
Eglinton Valley
Mirror Lakes
Lake Gunn
Falls creek
Pops View
Lake Marian Carpark (River flowing with some of the freshest glacial water in the world)
Homer tunnel
Milford Sound Cruise
Running Commentary, History of Milford Sound
Without running through the entire details already mentioned above in our self driven trip, we will mention some notable differences the tour had compared to our own trip.
We began our tour much earlier than our self driven trip, getting picked up just a couple of minutes walk from our Te Anau accommodation at 9am, and after a quick run through from our guide we were on our way!
The van was super comfortable and the views were not obscured at all so were able to thoroughly enjoy all the views along the way. One notable highlight of doing the tour was that Larry was able to enjoy all the views along the way, not being distracted by having to focus on where he was driving like the previous day.
Right from the start, our tour guide was full of interesting facts about the area and had an answer for every question thrown his way, this made for a true learning experience that you wouldn't get driving yourself.
We stopped at the majority of the same places we had the previous day, although the stops were much shorter than when we were driving ourselves as we had a strict amount of time we could spend at each stop off in order to arrive in Milford for our cruise on time. (We were still given ample time to explore at each stop off and didn't feel rushed at all by our guide)
Lake Gunn & Lake Marian-
Lake Gunn was the one of the places we stopped with the tour that we hadn't stopped at the previous day, we enjoyed the stop here on the tour but believe the closer end of the lake to Te Anau, where we went for a day trip the following day was nicer as it features a nice nature walk to the Lake edge. The walk is only a 1.4km circuit so would be perfect for families with young children. We enjoyed a BBQ lunch here during our day trip at the picnic area just up from the walk entrance.
In saying that the far end of Lake Gunn is still a beautiful spot to stop, full of nature and plenty of wildlife around. Another great but short stop we had was at Lake Marian Track carpark, we parked up here briefly and filled our water bottles up with some of the freshest drinking water you'll ever find, straight out of the glacial river. If you're lucky enough to have more time the walk to Lake Marian starts here and is 3.1km each way.
Milford Sound Cruise-
The highlight of any tour to the Milford Sound would have to be the cruise through Milford Sound.
Whether you have driven yourself to Milford Sound or booked a tour, you simply must do the cruise.
We had an amazing sunny day, which was a surprise to us as we had been forecast for rain the night before. Even without the hundreds of raging waterfalls you'd be treated to after heavy rainfall, the cruise was magical. Spending most of our time out on the front deck of the boat we could soak in the true beauty of the area.
Due to the superb weather we were treated to Dolphins, Seals, clear views of Mitre Peak, and even got up close and personal with Stirling Falls. Our cruise offered full running commentary, complimentary Tea, coffee and biscuits and was much smaller than other cruise options. (limiting it's capacity to just 75 people).
Both of the Cruise Milford NZ boats also offer full wheelchair accessibility.
Below we have rated each stop we had, both on our own and with the tour company.
This is our personal thoughts on each spot and not necessarily what others will find.
| Self driven Trip | Cheeky Kiwi Tours | Notes |
Eglinton Valley | ★★★★★  | ★★★☆☆  | Eglinton Valley was the kind of spot we could have easily spent hours at due to the photo opportunities. Others (non photographers) may be happy to spend 10 minutes here. |
Mirror Lakes | ★★★☆☆ | ★★★☆☆ | Hope for a calm day, expect a slightly underwhelming reflection off the lakes. Still worth a short stop. |
Lake Gunn | ★★★★☆ Spent a couple of hours, did short circuit walk to lake edge. Followed with bbq lunch at the picnic area. | ★★★☆☆ Short stop off, plenty of great facts about the area we would've otherwise missed out on. | The more time you can to spend here the better, plenty of areas to explore. |
Falls creek | ★★★★☆  | ★★★★☆  | A great stop along the way, spent a similar time here each day. Lucky enough to see our first Kea!. |
Pops View | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | Spectacular 180 degree views, well worth a short or long stop off as it's just off the main road, perfect snack spot! |
Lake Marian Carpark | N/A | ★★★★★ | We were super appreciative of our guide stopping here for us to have a taste of the fresh glacial water running down the river by the start of the track. |
Homer Tunnel | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | Full of amazing history, having a guide talk you through the history of this tunnel was amazing, and visually it's seriously impressive. |
Milford Sound Foreshore Walk | ★★★★★ Definitely a must do while in Milford Sound, just down from the Visitors Centre. Great views and plenty of photo opportunities (including the famous swing) | N/A | |
Milford Sound Cruise | N/A | ★★★★★ | Self explanatory, an absolute must do if you're ainMilford Sound. Worth every dollar. |
Overall | ★★★★★ If you're someone who likes to do and see things in your own time, without the fear of missing anything along the way, you should certainly drive yourself to Milford Sound, it'll require slightly more research and you may not learn as much as with a tour guide, but you'll be sure to see everything you want and plan it exactly how you'd like it. | ★★★★★ If you like to kick back, unwind and soak it all up without having to do too much planning, or even if you just want to learn more about the history of Fiordland, a guided tour is the way to go. All you have to do is be at your pick up spot on time, with a good attitude and we can guarantee this will be the most amazing 9 hours of your trip.The guides are extremely knowledgable and they seem to know just how much time to spend at each stopoff to ensure you arrive at your cruise right on time. | |
'We really hope this blog will help anyone trying to decide what to do when they head to Milford Sound and at the end of the day, we believe whatever option you run with you'll have a truly magical time exploring this part of Fiordland'
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