One of the biggest recommendations the New Zealand Government (and us) has for driving safely is: don’t rent a car the day after you get to New Zealand. You just do not have the bandwidth to drive when you’re jet lagged and sleep deprived. Spend some days with your feet on the ground (or in the air bungy jumping) getting used to everything. Observe. Take a few minutes at a roundabout and watch cars, learn how to cross the street (looking the opposite way than you’re used to) or even pop into a bookstore and read the road code.

We took a taxi from our hostel to the rental office and they pretty much handed us the keys and said good luck. If you’re with a friend you will inevitably accidentally walk to the “wrong” side of the vehicle based on who is driving. We recommend getting your friend/spouse/partner listed as a driver on the car because it’s fair to share the driving load and give the primary driver a chance to enjoy the sights (and get a break!). We also recommend that the passenger actively help the driver for the first couple hours or days (depending on confidence). The passenger can help say which turn on the roundabout or help remind the driver to turn into the correct lane at T intersections. Don’t just be on your phone or take photos but look at the map and help the driver.

We drove down to Te Anau which is around 2 hours from Queenstown. It’s a little technical when you get onto HW 6 along Lake Wakatipu because it gets tight and windy. After that it was smooth sailing. Driving on the other side feels a lot like when you’re learning to drive and you’re hyper focused on it. It’s mentally tiring. Also none of the switches did what we wanted and inevitably turned our windshield wipers on when trying to indicate a turn.

Te Anau is the closest city to Fiordland (Milford Sound), a famous destination for tourists given the towering mountains, waterfalls, and ancient rainforests. Unless you’re camping somewhere closer to the sound, Te Anau is where most tourists stay. We stayed at in a little cabin at Lakeview Holiday Park Te Anau. Here’s our rental car, Gritty, next to the tiny little cabin. It was awesome and had a shared bathroom and laundry within a minutes walk.

We got an early start the next morning to drive the ~2 hours to the actual fjord. It was a gorgeous drive and I have about a hundred pictures from the passengers seat, marveling at the mountains, rivers, trees and waterfalls we passed.

Probably the most interesting part of this drive is the tunnel. We had heard a little about the tunnel on other people’s blogs but didn’t quite get it. Chris was looking at the drive time and we had around 30 minutes until we were supposed to arrive and still were considerably above sea level. Just as he was commenting on this we got to the tunnel. It’s a one lane tunnel with a countdown clock and stop lights on either side for the waiting traffic. We didn’t have to wait going in so we were super surprised to suddenly be in a 10% grade, under a mountain for .75 miles. We have driven through the Eisenhower Tunnel a few times but this is far more intense as its nearly pitch black and you descend 417 feet to the exit of the tunnel straight into some major hairpin switchbacks.

We arrived early and walked the short trail to the visitor center area.

We were still very early for our ferry so we did the short Milford Sound Lookout Track, about a 15 minute walk. It starts near some “Do Not Enter” sign for employee housing so we were initially confused. There is also the grave of Donald Sutherland, one of the first European settlers in the area and his interpretive sign gave me the same vibes as John Muir. Sutherland was a Scottish explorer who was absolutely enamored by Fiordland and disliked other humans visiting the area. Muir was a Scottish American who was absolutely enamored by the Sierra Nevadas and disliked being outside of nature for long periods of time.

The lookout did not disappoint. We could see quite a few miles ahead (but nothing compared to what we saw on the boat). The fjord was formed by a combo of tectonic plates shifting huge mountains up and over 3,000 foot glaciers carving out the valley. At some point the depth exceeds 1,600 feet.

It was finally time for our ferry, there are loads of ferry options but we went with “Cruise Milford” and sat on the top deck looking right (starboard) (per the recommendation of many who said you see the most stuff).

The captain had a great sense of humor telling jokes during the safety briefing such as “don’t panic, the staff has been trained to panic for you” and “an earthquake would obviously kill us all so go ahead and think about that when you’re heading back up the tunnel.” We set off for a 2 hour sail to see around 4 miles of the sound, turning around at the South Pacific Ocean. The first thing we learned about were about the tree avalanches. Coming from the state with the #1 avalanche death rate we were intrigued. The area is so fertile that the sheer cliffs will actually start growing moss which birds bring seeds to and next thing you know there is a whole forest growing on the side of the granite cliffs. Eventually the weight of it is too much and the whole thing will peel off leaving a barren rockface again. Repeat.

We had wonderful weather which is awesome but many of the famous waterfalls only run during rainy weather so we didn’t see as many. We did see Lady Elizabeth Bowen (Hine Te Awa) and Stirling Falls (Wai Manu) which run year-round and is partially from glacier melt and partially from rain water. We also saw some adolescent fur seals. As you make it out to the ocean the next land mass is Australia, 1,057 miles away. Interestingly, you can see part of the Ring of Fire, the most active tectonic plate on Earth, just as you’re turning around back into the fjord.

The area averages 256 inches of rainfall a year. We live in a place that averages 14 inches of rain so this area was obviously spectacularly wet, lush and wonderful.

We made the drive back to Te Anau where we finally came to terms with the fact that we were sick. The runny noses, nasal drip and headaches couldn’t be denied any longer. This would end up cancelling some of our longer hikes we had planned over the next few days but we decided to take it easy and just lounge around the hotel reading and doing laundry.