We spoilt ourselves: Milford Sound by plane

A New Zealand trip wouldn’t be complete without seeing Milford Sound in New Zealand’s Fiordland National Park.

Our trip to the Milford Sound was beyond breath taking. Flying over the jagged snowy mountains was like a dream. It is a lifetime experience that we will never forget.

Specially in this part of New Zealand, is where we noticed that travelling with kids limits your alternatives.

We couldn’t do any of the long hikes, or spend long hours driving. The access to Milford Sound is not easy (and maybe this makes it even more special?).

We doubted a lot about going or not. From Queesntown, it was around 4.5-5 hours one way drive. Total drive time 9-10 hours in a day. With 3 kids who get sick on windy roads that was not an option. After analysing different possibilities, there was not much debate about wether to visit it by plane or driving to it. So, we wisely decided to spoilt ourselves.

Early in the morning we jumped in a propeller plane for a 45 min flight to the Milford Sound. The entire trip to Milford Sound and back to Queenstown, was about 6 hours.

The views were almost too fantastical to be real: snowed peaks, emerald lagoons surrounded by high mountains, cascades, rivers….

Once we landed in the Fiordland National Park, we boarded a catamaran to admire the fiords from the lake.

We did the Milford Sound Cruise, the tour is about 3,5 hours. Once again, the views were extraordinary beautiful: The fiord's cliffs rise vertically from the dark waters, waterfalls cascade downwards the cliff faces from as high as 1000 metres, while you can witness local wildlife residents as bottlenose dolphins, native fur seals and some penguins.

Milford Sound is a fusion of spectacular natural features with amazing visual cues around every corner.

But there’s more to it than just an ethereal beauty, here are five interesting facts that you probably didn’t know about Milford Sound:

It is one of the wettest places on Earth

The annual rainfall is pegged at 6,813mm falling about 182 days of the year. The highest recorded rainfall on a single day is at 250mm. September, October, November and December are the wettest months in Milford Sound, with an average of 16 to 18 days of rainfall in a month.

The water is an inky black

The fiord is hundreds of meters deep, but that’s not the only thing giving it the dark appearance. During rainfalls the water drains from the lush forests that surrounds Milford Sound and washes a tannin which stains the water the colour of strong tea.

Milford Sound is not a sound It’s actually a fiord. Sounds are formed when a river valley is flooded with the sea, whereas Milford Sound carved out by an erosion of ancient glacial ice.

Prepare to unplug

no cellphone coverage and limited WiFi in the Fiordland.

It is one of the New Zealand’s most-visited tourist spots even with its remote location and long journey times from the nearest population centres. It attracts between 550,000 and 1 million visitors per year.

If you ever find yourself in the same situation, travelling with kids and thinking that it is too complicated, or expensive to get to the Fiords, and are having second thoughts about going or not, I would strongly suggest you do it. Worth paying a premium for a once in a lifetime experience. Totally worth it.