Milford Sound in Winter?
 

We are planning a trip to Australia and New Zealand for 2006. Unfortunately, until I can retire (dh is already retired), we can really only go in June/July when school is out. I would very much love to go to Milford Sound or Doubtful Sound (or both) while in New Zealand, but I wonder what the weather will be like. Would we be better off sticking to the North Island this time around and come back in about 6-7 years to do the South Island?

Milford Sound will be cold and wet at that time of the year. But you do really need to get to some of the great winter South Island scenery.
Mount Cook, the Queenstown area. Try and get down there.
Cheers Dougie
www.newzealandatoz.com

The odds of any one day being very rainy are quite high. Still, it doesn't rain every day. If you are willing to be a bit patient, and plan on allowing a few days to visit Doubtful or Milford, then you can try to wait for a break in the weather. Clear winter days are rare, but spectacular!

I went to Milford Sound in June of 2005. Our first attempt was cancelled because of snow on the road. We were able to go the next day and had beautiful, but cold weather. The drive from Te Anu is spectacular.

I travel with a polartec and gortex raincoat which can be layered to meet almost every situation.

Thanks for the info everyone. We're having dinner with some friends of ours in a couple of weeks who are from New Zealand (actually he is - she married into New Zealand!) and we are going to pick their brains. They are from the Christchurch area. One thing that sounded interesting from there is the Tranz-Alpine train that goes to Arthurs Pass or Greystone. Any thoughts on that? Will the winter weather potentially cause problems with that? I think you are right, Glenn, we need to see at least some of both islands. But it is obvious that we will have to plan another (much longer) trip at a different time of year so we can really experience all that New Zealand has to offer.

Been to the South Island including Milford Sound a couple of times in winter. On both occassions we had gorgeous, albeit nippy weather for several days in a row. From what I've heard, the Sounds are more likly to be rainy in the summer than in winter. Also there were no crowds in Milford in winter, which I understand can be a problem during more temperate times.

I did Milford Sound on the first day of summer (December 1, 2004) and still ran into some snow and a lot of cold rain. Don't let it stop you. The Sound is beautiful. And Queenstown is absolutely gorgeous.

As for the South Island. I have Kiwi friends there and have visited a couple of times in Dec/Jan...their summer and it's always been rainy and cool/cold. I'm from L.A.Area, so to me it was cold. I had to sleep under the electric blanket at my friends' farmhouse for the whole two weeks I was there. My Kiwi friends,as a Christmas gift, took me on a trip to Milford Sound which was beautiful, but it was cold and rainy. We spent about 3 hours there. When you get to the sound area, it dead ends and you can't go any further. There's a little tourist kind of place and then across from that there are the boats to take one out on the sound. Other than that, there's nothing else there. The boat will take you out to a marine observatory place...I forget the official name of the place...which was great and you get off the boat and walk around and observe fish from a room under the water level. It's beautiful at the sound and the ride there is very nice. We drove there from Balclutha area which was a long drive. We did a day trip. I wouldn't postpone south island since you'll be in N.Z. anyway. I just don't know if I'd do Milford Sound in their winter. Maybe find other things to do, on South Island, during their winter. Have fun. Happy Travels!

I went to Milford Sound late June of this year and had pretty nice weather. Cold, yes, but clear and crisp. We actually had no rain on the South Island over 8 days.

One bad point is that they don't do the overnight Doubtful Sound trips during winter.

One good point is that Queenstown holds a winter festival the first week of July.

We left Q'town just before the festival and really enjoyed the town. The ski fields had just opened days earlier but the town was still pretty quiet. None of the crowds you hear about for the summer.