Day 2 - Queenstown to Milford Sound
After a quick buffet breakfast at the hotel, we hit the road. As there is nowhere to purchase food at Milford Sound we did a quick food shop at Woolworths on our way back through Frankton. There is also a supermarket at Te Anau, about halfway to Milford Sound.
We set off and immediately were taken with just how beautiful New Zealand is. The scenery is absolutely gorgeous. It is so green, there are so many lakes and mountains. We were awestruck for most of the drive!
Queenstown to Milford Sound is about a four-hour drive, but we took our time and did it in seven. The pace suited us; plenty of stops along the way for scenic views, food and loo stops. The girls were very unimpressed with the drop toilet we stopped at and refused to ever do that again, but for the most part, the bathrooms were clean and easy to find.
There were lots of lunch options in Te Anau. Note: it’s also the last stop for petrol and the supermarket before Milford Sound (2 hours further). We had “deli” (as the kids say) kebabs from Blak Shak. We ate them by the lake, a quick 2 min drive away. They were so good I wasn't even too concerned when I dripped garlic sauce all over my only pair of jeans! Highly recommend lunch from here, the lovely staff, and lunch was 5/5. It is just a little takeaway spot with a couple of tables out the front. Do what we did, drive to the lake, and sit on a bench there. Delicious lunch with a gorgeous view.
We stayed at the Milford Sound Lodge and were so impressed upon arrival. The two-bedroom cabin was cute, cozy and modern. It is better than we expected from the photos! There were two lovely bedrooms, a good-sized bathroom, and a little lounge area with big windows and a great view of the mountains. We’re very impressed!
The room has a kitchenette, so we made 2 min noodles for dinner and then went for a walk along the river (don’t forget the bug spray, we used Bushman Naturals and it worked really well). It is so beautiful here! The kids have been great travellers, but we’re all tired from two big days. Early night tonight.
Day 3 - Milford Sound
It was really quiet last night, and we all slept well. I love that breakfast is included here, we had croissants, muffins and muesli. They were very helpful with our nut allergy and substitutions.
Heading out for our Milford Sound Cruise today! It is peak season, and even though we got to the free car park at 8.30 am it was already quite full. There is another car park close to the cruise terminal, which costs $10 an hour. We wanted the free one so we could do a little hike on the way to the cruise. We took about an hour to do the walk from the free car park to the cruise terminal, detouring to the lookout. It was enjoyable but, in hindsight, a bit too tiring for the girls, who were pretty exhausted by the time we got to the cruise terminal. Make sure you wear your hiking boots if you are walking from the free car park, but you wouldn’t need them for the walk from the paid car park.
We booked a Southern Discoveries Cruise with Viator. They hadn’t informed us that the Underwater Observation part of our cruise was cancelled (due to storm damage months ago), so the staff at Sothern Discoveries gave us refund vouchers to use on food or souvenirs on the cruise, which we didn't need. We didn't spend them so we are trying to work out a refund for that amount with Viator. Lesson learnt - it can be worth it to book direct - and we won’t be booking with Viator again.
The cruise itself was fantastic! We all loved it. We sat on the top deck (left-hand side is best) and had fabulous views of the mountains and waterfalls. We got right up close to one. Seal Rock was a highlight! The girls and I loved hanging out on the bow, hubby not so much. The girls and I had our Sea Bands on so maybe they were helping. Being out on the bow was so special, it was so beautiful seeing nature stretching out in front of you, not obstructed by anything. The cruise went for about 1.5 hours, which was long enough. We were all pretty ready to get off by then. It was a fantastic experience, well worth the drive and staying closeby at the lodge.
We all had tired legs and the lovely public bus driver went out of his way to drive us back to the free car park! We were very grateful to skip the long walk back.
We were so glad to be staying at the lodge here at Milford Sound. The weather was perfect this morning, but it was raining this afternoon, so we are tucked up nice and cozy.
We went for an explore on our way to dinner. Hubby and the girls were very brave and climbed down the big rocks all the way to the river. I supervised from above whilst enjoying the gorgeous view.
We had dinner at the lodge’s Restaurant Pio Pio. It is a lovely restaurant in a gorgeous setting. The adults' meals were outstanding. The mushroom main was the best meal I had the entire trip - and probably the entire year. Amazing! I could eat it every day of the week. It would have been nice if the children's meals had more variety - the kids had ham pizza, and while it was ok, it felt like any other kids' pub meal.
Tonight, Miss 6 looked up at the mountains and said “I feel so small”.
Day 4 Milford Sound back to Queenstown
We set off early and took our time driving back to Queenstown. A fun stop was “Monkey Creek” The kids put their feet in and scrambled across to the other side. The water was glacier-cold! We stopped at the “cartwheel place” - a perfect flat expanse for cartwheels - officially known as Eglinton Valley.
The Lupins fields were a nice stop-off for some gorgeous photos. Even though they are weeds, they’re very pretty!
We stopped to do the Chasm hike, but unfortunately, you couldn’t go very far due to storm damage. Probably lucky, as when we returned to The Great White some cheeky Keas were eating the rubber seals around the windows! They were not worried about us being close to them, and we thought they might try to hop into the car with us.
We arrived at our Queenstown Airbnb in the late afternoon. I won’t share the link for this one as we didn’t love it. It had a weird, creepy vibe from the outset. Nothing happened during our stay, but there were rat droppings in a cupboard, and we saw rats running on the back patio. That was nearly enough to make me repack all the bags and leave - but accom is hard to come by at Christmas time!
When we arrived, Miss 8 said, “We have a problem, we don’t have a tree for Santa to put presents under”. I was stoked to be able to solve the problem with the tree and decorations I’d had delivered to our Airbnb in the weeks before. The girls and hubby were so surprised and impressed! Miss 6 decorated the tree, and both girls put baubles all over the house. It was so much fun! Miss 8 said it felt like the Christmas Spirit arrived! The joy and excitement of the girls is something I’ll never forget.