Exploring Milford Sound and Fjordland National Park

As the most popular tourist destination in New Zealand, and one of the wettest places in the world, we expected Milford Sound to be busy and wet. Instead we found ourselves surrounded by some of the most incredible landscapes and a handful of like minded tourists who had all come to see what Rudyard Kipling described as “the 8th wonder of the world”.

We left Queenstown early on Monday morning, desperate to get ahead of the convoys of tourist buses on day trips. After around 2 hours of driving through Northen Southland (a strange way to call the midlands), we changed down a gear and began climbing up the winding roads of the Fjordland National Park. We saw lakes as still as mirrors, huge valleys, a gang of Alpine Parrots and finally we were here. Milford Sound, where it rains for over 200 days a year, basking in the afternoon sun. We were welcomed with views out into the fjord, up the iconic Mitre Peak and towards vertical cliffs plunging 1200 metres into the water.

We had a cruise booked for 2 days time, so woke up the next day with plans to hike to Lake Marian, an alpine lake almost 700 metres above sea level. But unsurprisingly, it was raining, so we shelved that plan and instead explored the township whilst waiting for the rain to stop.

After what seemed like gallons of rain had fallen on us, the clouds eventually dried out but didn’t leave us enough time to climb to Lake Marian. Instead, we headed into the forest along the Tutoko Valley Route. We clambered over fallen trees, jumped over puddles, and watched as a fantail flew circles around us, wondering why we were hiking through his garden...

We didn’t have enough time to reach the end of the track so after almost 2 hours of exploring the dense forest we turned around and headed back to the campsite to heat up some mulled wine and warm up our cold toes.

As the fog rolled in and we drank mulled wine we were visited by a Kea bird, the same alpine parrot we’d seen on the drive over. He was very interested in Bill the Canoe and spent a while walking up and down and occasionally pecking before having had enough and disappearing into the forest.

The next morning the fog was still firmly in place but after some breakfast and a few prayers to the weather gods the sun was starting to shine through in a few places. By the time we arrived at the harbour it was definitely going to be a great day to cruise around the fjord.

And what a great day it was! We’d decided to book places on the smallest boat which only took half of its maximum capacity on board at a time. This meant that everyone on board would have plenty of space to walk around and get different view points whilst on the boat.

We left the harbour at precisely 10:45 and spent the next two hours making our way through the fjord and right to the point where it meets the sea. Fuelled by free tea, coffee and biscuits we filled our memory cards until they were bursting and headed back to dry land.

After a quick switch over of memory cards and an even quicker lunch, we drove to the bottom of the Lake Marian track and started walking towards the alpine lake 695 metres above us.

Almost the entire walk was through dense bush and forest, with the occasional few steps out into the open to catch a glimpse of the mountains above us before heading back under the trees. An hour and a half later we made it to the edge of the lake, perfectly still and reflecting the peaks that rose 2000 metres around it. On a summer’s day the water would be perfect for a refreshing swim but on this day it was so cold I only made it to being knee deep before turning around and hoping I wouldn’t catch a cold!

We took more photos then just as clouds started to come up the valley we headed back down to try and get ahead of the rain. We managed to make it to our camp for the night and after a big bowl of risotto we fell asleep before our heads touched the pillow.

The next morning we left early to try and see the morning light shining on top of the mountains before heading back to Queenstown, but the rain made it difficult to see anything at all. We hoped for a gap in the clouds but it wasn’t until we left Fjordland that we saw blue skies again.

It was an amazing trip that was over too quickly, but one that we’ll remember forever. Despite not managing to see everything on our list we left more than satisfied with our little adventure.

Fjordland, we’ll be back...

Written By Leo