Milford Sound boat tours
 

On our upcoming trip in November we are hoping to include a boat tour of Milford Sound. When I google this it seems there are many choices. Can anyone recommend a company for me that they have cruised with and enjoyed? I am also curious if it is better to get a tour out of Queenstown or drive yourself and stay nearby.

I'd suggest that you stay in Te Anau and drive yourself - the drive to Milford Sound is quite spectacular and you can stop and look wherever it suits you. We were told to avoid the mid-day boats as they are usually crowded with coach tour passengers so we timed it to have some lunch at Milford and then take the mid-afternoon boat. Very few people on board and we could wander around the boat to get the best viewpoints. Can't remember which boat we took but we waited until we got to the sound and then made a booking.

Milford Sound is a world-renowned natural wonder. Nowhere else in Fiordland do the mountains stand so tall, straight out of the sea and beautiful Luxuriant rainforest's.I think you must choose to drive yourself to enjoy there.

Check out Mitre Peak - http://www.mitrepeak.com/cruises_pricing - for a Milford Sound cruise. Took/enjoyed one of their afternoon cruises. They also offer coach+cruise+coach from Queenstown but agree with the previous comments about making the drive yourself.

another vote for Mitre Peak. We did not drive, took the coach but the cruise itself was amazing. The boats are much smaller than other companies' and you get much closer to wildlife. Saw a pod of dolphins dancing on the way back!

Ok I am convinced to drive. I found a cruise on the sound that you spend the night on. A little pricey but we are celebrating our anniversary while there. Has anyone done this? It looks great online...

I'm probably the only person in the world who feels this way, but ... I was more impressed with the scenery on the bus tour en route from Queenstown -- than I was with the boat ride in the Sound.

Don't get me wrong, Milford Sound was very pretty -- but having cruised through other fjords, I wasn't blown away. The scenery was not very varied. It reminded me of the beautiful Chinese Gorges, but it was as if I'd seen it all in the first ten minutes ... and then continued looking at very similar views for a couple more hours. Maybe I'm just jaded because I'd previously sailed through fjords in Norway and Alaska. I'm certainly not saying not to go. I just wish I'd had slightly lower expectations.

But ... Mirror Lakes and some of the other spots where our coach driver pulled off for photo ops were SPECTACULAR.

The coach had a mostly glass roof, and as we returned to Queenstown the stars were truly BREATHTAKING. I can't recall which coach company we used -- but they all seemed identical.

Songdoc -- which company did you take? I am trying to decide whether to make Queenstown our base for exploring Te Anau and Milford Sound or actually getting a hotel in Te Anau for 2 nights. We want to see the glow worm caves and also do the Milford Sound cruise. I'm assuming we'll need at least 2 days in Te Anau/Milford. Not sure if it makes sense to keep driving back to Te Anau from Queenstown.

Also, would you suggest Doubtful instead, or does that require an overnight?

I am curious about this as well. I want to give the sound area enough time but our time is so limited I want to keep moving as well. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated...

I had posted a similar question before our NZ trip last year, and the advice that we received from everyone on this board was to take the 1:50pm cruise offered by Mitre Peak cruises. We did just that, and were not disappointed. There were very very few people on board, the light was perfect, and we had an excellent cruise.

Would strongly recommend that you stay in Te Anau, rather than taking a bus tour from Queenstown. The self-drive from Te Anau to Milford is spectacular, and you will want to stop zillions of times in between (and you should !!). Some guidebooks describe it as the best drive on this planet, but I think it is pushing it a bit too far ! Anyway, we loved the drive from Te Anau to Milford and back, and we stopped at many places on the way to Milford and on the return trip also. They say that many accidents happen on the road because people are too engrossed watching the scenery and they tend to forget about the road ! So be careful.

I would endorse indiancouple's advice re staying in Te Anau, and driving yourself to and from Milford.

We have taken boat trips on both Milford and Doubtful Sounds, and both sounds are very, very different. The day we were in Doubtful it was wet but so very beautiful with its waterfalls and the mist-covered walls of the sound - and that was in January!! That day we took a tour because we were driving from there to Timaru next day, but otherwise I think we would drive ourselves as it is not too far from Te Anau. While in Te Anau have a look at the information centre and a little bird sanctuary just round the corner where there are takahe roaming within a large enclosure. Sorry, can't remember the name of the place as it is quite some years since we have been there.

For what it is worth I don't think it matters very much which boat you take for a day cruise on Milford Sound. From what I remember, while there are some differences in size, the boats are basically the same and they all follow the same route (going out on one side of the Fjord and returning on the opposite side. They all paused for a while at the base of several of the waterfalls (in fact I recall having to "wait" a couple of times while other boats moved out of the way so we could get closer). Think of the tour as a procession of tour boats moving up/down the length of the Sound.

As dotty pointed out the spectacular scenery is even more so if your tour happens to coincide with or is shortly after a period of rain - the number of waterfalls multiplies.

By the way, we did a "flightseeing" tour in/out of Milford Sound which also included a day cruise - it was fantastic and worth every penny of the price. When you fly (in a small plane) through the mountain passes and over the glaciers you can almost reach out and touch the rocks.

Thanks. Very helpful.