carrom

We leave home tuesday for a long trip and I'm now panicking as I look through all my travel plans!
In a few weeks we have a flight arriving in Invercargill at 10am and a Night cruise leaving from Milford Sound at 4.30pm boarding at 4pm. Google and others give the non-scenic driving time as 4 hours. Is this realistic? Will we be in a mad rush? Will we find traffic? Are the flights often delayed?
I know these are all impossible questions but I am now wondering if we would we be better off taking the 6pm flight the night before? It would mean changing a lot of bookings but I would hate to get to Milford half an hour too late!
If you've driven this route, please advise. Thanks!

mlgb

I'm thinking it could take a bit over 4 hours if you are stuck behind some slow moving campers but chances are you will make it. Invercargill airport shouldn't take much time at all to get out of but you have to pick up a rental car...are they at the airport or are they going to shuttle you to an offsite location?

Is it going to cost you a lot to change the flights?

mlgb

Or perhaps the Milford cruise could be booked for the following day. They may be more flexible than the airlines depending on what type of fare that you have.

carrom

Yes we need to pick up a car at the airport and wait for our luggage. Changing the flights is not too expensive but we can't change the cruise because we have a flight to Sydney to catch from Queenstown. I'm afraid that if we should miss the cruise it will be too late to make any other arrangements to see the Sound.

mlgb

Well I think you're in the situation that if everything goes smoothly with the flight, car and traffic you will make it, but there is a slight chance you won't.

Do you feel unlucky?

If it was me I would have booked the prior evening's flight just so I wouldn't have to rush. It's a drive that is worth doing slowly.

carrom

Agree. Have changed the flight. Want to do the scenic route sloowly....