Milford Sound Travel Forum

Will it be the wee hours of morning, or mid morning (10am-2pm)?

Will 4 hours be comfortable for the drive from QT to MS (to catch the ferry) and with time for photo breaks?

I'd be inclined to allow easily 5 hours.

we left for MS from lake te anau, and that took 2 hrs. if memory serves, QT is about 2 hrs. from te anau, so kat is correct, at least 5 hrs, or consider spending the night before in te anau....a nice quiet little town. the road from te anau to MS is very curvy, and very steep in places, so traffic sometimes is slowed by weather, or by the many large slow caravans that make the trip. good luck, it is a beautiful drive/sail.

yes, will be spending the night in Te Anau after MS. Didnt want to stay overnight in TA as it mean we have to wake up early to make the 2 hr drive to MS for the morning cruise (mid late cruise is crowded) and as we will be up late the night before as we intend to visit the glowworm caves.

If you want a cheap glow worm option, there's a small grotto at the Milford Sound Hostel, it's free!
I went on a coach trip and if I remember correctly it took about 5 hours, with stops at the Mirror Lakes and about two other stops plus a bit in Te Anau. Bearing in mind that was a coach, so they tend to take longer anyway.

Sorry, should have said 5 hours from Queenstown, oops!
Good luck

thanks northeast80 for your tip. By the way, I goggled for the small grotto at the Milford Sound Hostel with the free glowworm but I cant find it. Do you have more info on it? thanks

Hi pebs, I sure do, it's the only hostel in Milford anyway so if you did want to stay overnight there I'd suggest you booked ahead, depending on what season you visited in of course! There is a more expensive hotel around too.
http://www.milfordlodge.com/
Oh and they only provide bottom sheet and pillow, (in dorm rooms) I didn't realise and slept under the bottom sheet instead :-)

thanks! But i'm not going to stay in MS - will I still be able to enter & see the free glow worm?

thanks! But i'm not going to stay in MS - will I still be able to enter & see the free glow worm?

Oh yes you could see them for free, there's some hand painted sign posts to shhow you the way, BUT you'd have to wait until it got dark outside, the caves are kind of half open (if that makes sense!) so you would have to wait until nightfall in order to see the glow worms.
Hmmm, sorry if I got your hopes up!

only at dark - that means I have to stay overnight in MS - wouldnt want to drive 2 hours to TA in the dark.. Thanks for the info - shall check with my travel mates & decide when we're there.