Queenstown and Fiordland
Seven days from Queenstown's lake to Milford Sound, with Glenorchy and the Routeburn in between.
Mountain Trekking · 7 days · November to March
Queenstown is treated as an adventure-sports town and Milford as a day trip from it, which produces a twelve-hour coach ride for ninety minutes of fiord. Moving to Te Anau for two nights fixes that: you get Milford at eight in the morning before the buses arrive, and Doubtful Sound as a whole day rather than an alternative. The other correction is Glenorchy - forty-five minutes up the lake, and the road there is better than most things people pay to do in the town itself.
Day by day
- Day 1
Queenstown and the lake
Get above the town on the first afternoon, which is the only way to understand where everything is.
15:00Skyline Gondola to Bob's Peak
450 metres above the town, with Lake Wakatipu, the Remarkables and Cecil Peak arranged below you in one view.
The steepest cable car lift in the southern hemisphere. The Tiki Trail walks up the same hill for free in about an hour.
18:00TSS Earnslaw on Lake Wakatipu
A 1912 coal-fired steamship still in scheduled service, and the last of its kind working anywhere in the southern hemisphere.
You can go down and watch the stokers shovelling coal, which is most of the point.
- Day 2
Glenorchy and the head of the lake
The best short drive in the country, and the valleys at the end of it.
08:30Queenstown to Glenorchy road
The road is cut into the mountainside directly above the lake for most of its length, which makes it one of the great drives rather than a transfer.
Bennetts Bluff has the only proper pull-out and it is worth stopping at. Forty-five kilometres, all sealed.
10:30Glenorchy lagoon and wharf
The red boatshed at the head of the lake is the most photographed building in the South Island, and behind it the Humboldt Mountains close off the valley.
The lagoon boardwalk is a flat twenty-minute loop through dead willows and is oddly beautiful.
13:00Paradise and the Dart valley
Beech forest and braided river flats under 2,000-metre peaks, and the reason half of Middle-earth was filmed within ten kilometres of here.
Gravel road with fords that rise fast after rain. Check the conditions in Glenorchy before going up.
- Day 3
The Routeburn, as far as the flats
A day walk on one of the great tracks, without the hut bookings.
08:00Routeburn Track to the Falls Hut
Beech forest to an alpine basin, and the flats above the falls are where the track breaks out of the trees into the Humboldt range.
Nineteen kilometres return and around 500 metres of climb. Day walkers do not need a hut booking but do need to sign the intentions book. Weather here changes without warning in any month.
19:30Dinner in Queenstown
The last proper meal before Te Anau, which is a smaller town with fewer options.
Central Otago pinot noir is the local wine and the good lists here are deep in it.
- Day 4
South to Te Anau
Two hours through sheep country, with the afternoon on the lake.
14:00Te Anau Glowworm Caves
A limestone cave still being actively carved by an underground river, with the glowworm grotto reached by punt in complete darkness.
Reached only by boat across the lake. No photography in the grotto and total silence is asked for.
17:30Kepler Track to Dock Bay
Mossy beech forest right on the lake edge, and the easiest possible introduction to what Fiordland's bush actually looks like.
Flat, well graded, and about ninety minutes return from the control gates.
- Day 5
Milford Sound
Leave at six. The road is the other half of the day and almost nobody treats it that way.
07:00Mirror Lakes and the Eglinton valley
The Earl Mountains upside down in a still tarn, on a road that has no fuel and no phone signal for 120 kilometres.
Only reflects properly with no wind, which in practice means early. Roadside boardwalk, five minutes.
08:30The Chasm and the Homer Tunnel
The Cleddau has drilled the rock into a set of smooth bowls under the walkway, and the tunnel above it drops 1,200 metres in ten kilometres.
The tunnel is single lane with lights and a wait of up to fifteen minutes. Keas will strip rubber from a parked car; do not feed them.
10:30Milford Sound cruise
Mitre Peak rises 1,690 metres straight out of the water, and Stirling Falls drops 150 metres onto the bow if the skipper is feeling generous.
Rain is normal here - around 200 days a year - and the waterfalls are better in it. Take the smaller boats over the big ones.
- Day 6
Doubtful Sound
A whole day and three separate vessels to reach a fiord ten times the size of Milford.
08:00Doubtful Sound via Lake Manapouri
Three times longer and ten times larger than Milford, with bottlenose dolphins, fur seals and a silence the skipper will stop the engines for.
Boat across Manapouri, coach over Wilmot Pass, then the fiord vessel. There is no road access; the whole day is committed once you leave.
- Day 7
North through the Southland hills
The drive back to Queenstown, with the two stops that make it a day rather than a transfer.
10:00Kingston and the Devil's Staircase
The southern arm of Wakatipu from a road blasted into the rock above it, which is the arrival Queenstown deserves.
Narrow, winding and cut into the cliff above the lake for twenty kilometres. Several pull-outs.
13:00Gibbston valley
The coldest and highest commercial wine region in New Zealand, in a schist gorge above the Kawarau, and the pinot noir is the reason the valley exists.
Twenty-five minutes from the airport, which makes it the right last lunch. Do not drive after a tasting; the shuttle from town is easy.
Questions
- How long is the Queenstown and Fiordland itinerary?
- The Queenstown and Fiordland itinerary runs 7 days and covers 15 stops across Queenstown, Glenorchy, Te Anau, Milford Sound.
- When is the best time to do the Queenstown and Fiordland itinerary?
- November to March is the best window for the Queenstown and Fiordland itinerary.
- What happens on day one of the Queenstown and Fiordland itinerary?
- Day one is queenstown and the lake: Get above the town on the first afternoon, which is the only way to understand where everything is.
Sources
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