After picking up our Jucy Van in Queenstown, we got on the road and made our way to Milford Sound on the west coast of New Zealand. While it looks close on a map, the roads take a very roundabout route.

The drive was incredibly scenic with mountains and waterfalls making for dramatic vistas.

We pulled into Milford Sound Lodge and realized this was the only sign of civilization for miles around. Luckily they had spaces available for us to park our campa.

There was water rushing down the sides of the cliffs all around us. We cooked a nice mussel and oyster dinner in the kitchen of the lodge and relaxed in their very comfortable commons area. Our first night sleeping in the van was very nice too.

We woke up the next morning to a very pretty scene.

After breakfast we made our way to the dock area where several companies run cruises into the Milford Sound. We decided to go with Southern Discoveries nature cruise. Milford Sound is actually a fiord – it was carved over thousands of years by a retreating glacier.

This area gets a ton of rain and we were very lucky to have a clear and sunny day. We boarded the boat and took off.

There was a very good tour guide on the speaker system and the scenery was breathtaking.

All the rain this area gets creates a lot of waterfalls. The boat even goes under one of the bigger ones and provides raincoats for passengers if they want to stay on deck and get doused.

We saw a bunch of seal sunbathing and some dolphins came up to the boat to play in the wake.

The boat was very comfortable and had indoor areas to relax and hot tea and coffee. I highly recommend this cruise as it was very enjoyable.