Milford Sound is probably the most popular attraction in New Zealand. It is actually a fjord and is located in the southwest corner of New Zealand. Many tourists come to New Zealand just to see Milford Sound and most of them use Queenstown as the base to visit the attraction. Its most well-feature is called Mitre Peak, named because it looks like the mitre on a Bishop's hat. It takes about 5 hours to drive from Queenstown to Milford Sound because of the mountains and lakes in between. As the crow flies, it's only 40-50 km or about 30 miles. There's talk about building a tunnel through the mountains but like any project of this magnitude there is a lot of opposition.
A one-day trip to Milford Sound takes about 14-15 hours, most of it on the road. You actually spend less than 2 hours on a boat that cruise the sound. I think the scenery along the route is just as beautiful because you pass through a whole range of beautiful and majestic mountains and lakes. On the mountains you see endless number of waterfalls and off to the side of the road, you find trails that take you into beautiful forest and streams.
Instead of just traveling to Milford Sound and then back to Queenstown, our group stayed at a nearby camp about 30 minutes from the Sound. This used to be a work camp during the depression but was abandoned. They converted the huts into cabins or dormitories and added a few more buildings and built a nice lounge and kitchen. It runs on an on-site generator, which is turned off at 10:30 pm. Once it gets dark (right now it gets dark about 9:30 pm), you can see a full spectacle of stars in the Southern skies.
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| Mitre Peak |
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| One of many waterfalls around the Sound |
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| A running stream along the way |
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| A small penguin on the shore |
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| Another view of the Sound |
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| This is too beautiful to describe |
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| A Kea bird. They are not afraid of people |
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| Mirror Lake, as you can see from the reflection |
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| Gunn's Camp where we spent the night |
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