Explore Queenstown & Milford Sound: Itinerary Tips + Experience Insights 📝

🌟Fjord Booking:
You can book in advance on Taobao.
If you decide to go at the last minute and there are no spots available on Taobao,
you can visit a local New Zealand travel company, such as RealNZ (Figure 18),
and ask if there are any available spots for the day. The staff will help with the inquiry.

When booking, you can choose between round-trip from Queenstown, round-trip from Te Anau, or a one-way boat ticket if you’re driving yourself, and whether it includes meals.
The boats and shuttle buses also vary.
We chose a Mercedes minibus with a transparent roof, which has fewer passengers and is a bit more expensive.

Meals can be either buffet or boxed lunch.
It’s recommended to bring your own food, like the famous stuffed donuts from Queenstown [Crying Laughing Emoji].
Our boat had hot tea and chocolate cookies 🍪.

🌟Itinerary and Experience:
We departed from the hotel at 6:25 AM.
The driver also served as a guide, introducing various attractions along the way,
such as Figure 16, Hollyford Track, Figure 15 Mirror Lakes, and Figures 13, 14 of the Hollyford River.
You can see Kea (Figure 12)!! Each Kea has a numbered tag on its leg.

They are quite mischievous and like to play with the rubber parts of the car. You’ll be reminded not to feed them!
There are stops at each location, and there are scheduled bathroom breaks.
We arrived at the fjord dock around 12:30 PM (Figure 9) to pick up the tickets and board the boat (Figure 8).
The captain provides commentary while navigating, and the boat has a real-time route display.

When encountering seals (Figure 7), the boat will get closer for viewing, and you might also see dolphins.
It depends on luck; we only saw seals and seagulls that day.
We returned around 2:30 PM and arrived back in Queenstown around 7 PM.
Fjord landscapes are the only type of landscape not found in China.

The fjords have an apocalyptic feel on rainy days.
The mountains are shrouded in mist and fog,
with countless waterfalls cascading down from the peaks, quite spectacular!

🌟What to Bring:
– A windbreaker or waterproof jacket (it’s windy and rainy, so an umbrella is not suitable)
– Motion sickness medicine!!! The boat can be very bumpy, and some may find it unbearable [Face Covering Emoji]
– A power bank, in case your phone battery drains quickly from taking photos
– A hat, to shield from wind and rain, and it can be cold
– Lunch (dinner can be eaten after returning, we had Vietnamese noodles in Queenstown)

🌂Umbrella, optional (the minibus we used for pick-up and drop-off provided umbrellas for free use during the trip, and they can be delivered to and picked up from your accommodation)

Milford Sound