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It's not like booking a beach holiday in Bluff in July, or organising a Queenstown ski trip for February - with Milford Sound, you're never going to miss, writes Tim Roxborogh.
I've driven that famous road from Te Anau through winter snow, clutching the steering wheel so hard I leftindentations. And I've driven it in summer sun, where the main stress is finding where next to pull over to attempt photos that'll never do the landscape justice. At the time, both options feel like the only way to go. Regardless, you'll end up running out of adjectives.
It's easy to find a scenic lunch spot in Fiordland. Photo / Tim Roxborogh
But if you've got to choose a time of year, how do you decide between a place that's arguably at its visual best in winter, but at its accessible best in summer? A place that can be cold, remote and occasionally treacherous, but oh so striking in the process. Or hot, sandfly-stacked but ultimately straight-forward?
The answer is easy, you do both. Or, you accept that winter and summer adventures in Milford Sound are rewarding for reasons both different and the same. And that whereas Rudyard Kipling's much-quoted "eighth wonder of the world" assessment from his late 1800s Fiordland visit is perennial, there are seasonal distinctions.
Milford Sound is home to one of the highest mountains in the world to rise directly from the sea floor. Photo / Tim Roxborogh
In the depths of winter, when snow transforms parts of the Milford Road through Fiordland National Park and into Milford Sound into scenes not out of place from a Scandinavian tourism brochure, care needs to be taken. You'll pass signs warning of no stopping due to the risk of avalanche. Chains are recommended and there's an average of eight days a year when the conditions are so tricky that the road is completely closed.
Milford Road climbs the fastest of any highway in the country, eventually peaking at 940m above sea level. The increase in altitude takes you from fantastical, moss-draped, low-lying rainforest, to sparse, snow-covered, granite-dominant alpine terrain, and back again. And all in about two hours of drive time, depending on the conditions.
To see that variance of scenery above and below the snow line is worth every single bit of hype that's ever been thrown this way, especially when the pay-off is Milford Sound. If, against the odds, the name "Milford Sound" doesn't yet conjure up any images, just knowing that it's home to one of the highest mountains in the world to rise directly from the seafloor - the 1692m Mitre Peak - is a decent starting point.
Then realise that all around are glaciers and waterfalls and that this surreal corner of Aotearoa extends 15km from the village at Milford Sound to where the calm waters of the fiord give way to the open swells of the Tasman Sea. On board any of the scenic cruises on offer, you're almost guaranteed to spot dolphins, seals and various native birds, whether it's winter or summer. And as the locals rightly point out, don't fret about any rain (Fiordland is among the wettest places on Earth with Milford Sound getting more than 6400mm per year) when it serves to create even more spectacular - if temporary - waterfalls.
Winter weather makes Milford slightly less accessible, but its waterfalls more spectacular. Photo / Tim Roxborogh
I had dry conditions in winter and both wet and dry in summer. But a bit of rain wasn't going to stop me from doing part of the Milford Track, widely regarded as up there with any major hike in the world. It's here that a non-winter trip may have the edge, because that four-day, 52.5km trek becomes exponentially more challenging in the colder months.
As in, up to 10 bridges get removed each winter season to protect them from avalanche damage, so while the walk is still possible, it's much harder and potentially even dangerous. A hot tip if it's less the prospect of a river crossing or 10 putting you off and more the whole four days and 50-plus kilometres aspect, do a day trip from Sandfly Point in Milford Sound of the final segment of the Great Walk.
Here you can walk from the traditional endpoint of the Milford Track to the thundering, 30m high Giant Gate Falls. As a return trip, it's 11km and two-and-half hours of beech rainforest so untouched by man, so dense, and so spellbinding as to be a near-spiritual experience.
It's not all mountains and lakes, dense tropical forest is another hallmark of the Milford area. Photo / Tim Roxborogh
Truth be told, at more than 12,000sq km, Fiordland National Park is so huge you don't have to do the Milford Track to find these magical tracts of bush. They're everywhere from the Lake Gunn Nature Walk to the Humboldt Falls to countless other diversions along the main route from Te Anau to Milford Sound. They may be easier to access in summer, they may get you more Instagram likes in winter, but either way, you'll leave knowing you have to come back.
Tim Roxborogh hosts Newstalk ZB's Weekend Collective every Saturday and Sunday, 3pm-6pm.
Tim travelled as a guest of Visit Fiordland - for more, see Fiordland.org.nz
