ZENSCAPE 005

Milford Sound or Piopiotahi is actually a fiord but was mistakenly named a sound.  Milford Sound is located in the south west of New Zealand’s South Island within the incredibly breathtaking Fiordland National Park.

Most individuals venture in with a group on a bus tour, which could be quite convenient as the drive is quite long.  BUT if your in for an adventure, are on your own time, and have an extra day, I highly recommend doing the drive yourself.  Here is what we did, it worked out marvelously.

We headed into Fiordland the day before we planned on exploring Milford Sound.  That way we had plenty of time to picnic on the side of the road whenever we wanted to, we tend to leave plenty of time for spontaneity (typically when the epic shit tends to happen, such as the photoshoot above).  Also, this gave plenty of time to explore Milford Sound the following day.  The idea is that you want an entire day in Milford Sound, so you have to get an early enough start to beat all the tourism and actually get on a boat, so get as close as possible the night before.  There is NO camping or accommodations at Milford Sound, FYI.

We camped as close as possible, the last DOC camping that had spots.  For the first time during out New Zealand camper van trip we set an alarm clock.  We had to be up before dawn.  The sky was clear.  This was a huge blessing as Milder Sound averages 200+ days of rain a year.  It was a glorious day on the boat surrounding area and all.

Glad we did it our own way as it left plenty of time to explore, beat the traffic, and do our own thing as we felt it.