This may have already been mentioned before, but it was new to us until we experienced it!!

If you're renting a car and driving from Queenstown to Milford Sound and back in a single day, make sure that you fill up your gas tank in Te Anau BEFORE you continue to Milford Sound. There is a single set of gas pumps in Milford Sound, but it is a Mobil self-serve (no attendant) that only takes NEW ZEALAND issued credit cards.

We found this out the hard way, and had to locate a nice young man who let us pay him cash so he could charge the gasoline purchase on his credit card so we could get enough fuel to make it back to Te Anau.

P.S. Milford Sound was beautiful, and well worth the trip!!

We are considering taking a bus to Milford Sound from Queenstown, rather than driving ourselves. Did you consider doing this, and, if so, why did you opt for self drive? How long a trip was it?
Carol L

Hi Carol L,

We opted for a rental car instead because we were a family of four (Mom, Dad, and 2 teenagers). The bus tours that drove you there were priced anywhere from $159 to $200 per person (including cruise on Milford Sound). We saved several hundred dollars by driving ourselves.

After the initial stages of getting used to it, there were no problems with driving on the left side of the road. We also rented a car in Melborne and drove the Great Ocean Road. We rented a car in Auckland and drove to the Waitmo Caves, Rotorua, and Hobbiton. My husband probably drove about 1500 miles total with no issues.

We just aren't fans of the "big bus" tours. We like to set our own pace and stop where and when we wanted. We saved both time and money.

Good luck in however you decide to get to Milford Sound; it's well worth it!! We would have liked to have Doubtful Sound as well, but time didn't allow.

Let me know if you have any further questions.

Carolll,
Milford Sound is amazing. Taking a bus tour is better than not going. I am not going to knock it. You need to sign up for a boat trip when you get there if you don't do the bus tour anyway.
We rented a campervan for the trip. This was a huge advantage for us. We were able to get a campsite 1 hour from Milford Sound. So, we were able to beat all of the buses. In fact, we counted 20 buses on the road heading to Milford Sound when we were leaving. The cruises start at 9AM, I believe. If you get on an earlier one, it isn't very crowded. We signed up for the MV Mitre (I think) line. They were a bit more expensive ($56 vs $40) but the boat was brand new, the trip was longer, and the service was wonderful. If you sign up for a bus, you will be on a bigger boat. We got a brochure in Wanaka or Queenstown that gave us a description of the companies, and it was obvious who they were catering to. One had a Japanese buffet, another advertised a big boat and a small boat. We got the one that specialized in not being for tour buses.
The last part of the drive is very slow and windy. I would be nervous driving a big bus on those curves. Then again, that is a good reason to leave it up to the experts.

Well we flew to and from Milford on the advice of the folks we stayed with at the Stone House. Beat the crowds and got back to Queenstown in time to go jetboating that afternoon. We sat on the deck of a great bar overlooking the lake and around 7.30 pitied all the bus passengers heading back to town when we'd been back for hours.

The return flight wasn't much more expensive that the bus tours as I recall.