I knew after I booked my plane tickets to Australia that I wanted to spend a few days in New Zealand. However, I hadn’t quite settled on which city I wanted to visit. I contemplated flying into the capital Auckland, but it was only after I asked a former colleague that the idea of Queenstown came to mind. Her suggestion was Milford Sound, which is part of Fiordland National Park, with the closest airport being Queenstown. Once I saw photos of it, I was sold. The only problem is, it’s a 5-hour drive one way from Queenstown. 

Well I wasn’t going to let a bit of distance stop me, so I looked up some tour companies online and went with a company called Luxe, as they had great reviews online. On the day of the tour, we got picked up directly at our hotel by our guide Adrian at 7:30am. We were the last pair to board and after getting settled in, we were off to Milford Sound.

The van we were in was quite spacious to fit our small group. Everyone gave brief introductions and Adrian entertained us with commentary along the way. The first stretch was a bit bumpy as we were winding through the mountains. Even though I’m prone to motion sickness, I was surprisingly fine riding inside the van the entire day.

Our first stop was at Te Anau, which is the town closest to Milford Sound. We had a quick washroom break and bought a snack inside the Kea Cafe. I was obsessing over the meat pies in New Zealand and got a venison and mushroom one to eat. We did stop a few more times along the way, mostly to help stretch our legs. We finally reached Fiordland National Park before noon, then we got to the terminal at Milford Sound around 12:30pm.

Milford Sound was absolutely stunning in person. We were lucky it was sunny out that day, as there are typically more rainy days on average. We loaded onto our boat with other tour groups, then we were off for our cruise. I did order lunch in advance and I had the second and third of my meat pies — cranberry chicken and pork belly. The cruise itself would last around 90 minutes, so I spent about half my time inside and half outside on the deck.

The boat was rocky at times, but we were close enough to see some wildlife outside. I saw my first ever penguin in the wild, as well as a seal who was just sunbathing on a rock. We got really close to one of the falls, so I got to experience a glacial facial, which according to the legends, makes you 10 years younger. 

Even though our time in Milford Sound was short, it was definitely worth it. A couple of people from our tour group opted to fly back to Queenstown. I didn’t have an extra $500 to spend on the flight, so it was back in the van for another 5-hour ride back. However, the entire day was very enjoyable and I had a great time with the tour group as well as our guide. I would definitely recommend Luxe Tours to those who are thinking of visiting Queenstown. 

It was around 7:30pm by the time we arrived back at our hotel, so we were gone for half the day. We didn’t feel like trekking downtown for a meal, so we decided to walk over to the supermarket across the street and bought some stuff to make dinner in our room. It was nice having a full kitchen and we also did a load of laundry that evening! Overall it was a great day and I’m so glad I made it out to Milford Sound on my first trip to New Zealand.