comet555

Hi everyone,

I'm headed to New Zealand over Easter and have a couple questions on the cruises of Milford Sound. (I've edited this to add that I've just booked my tickets, very impatient... but thought I'd leave this up for input anyway as others might be interested). I would still love the answer to #3 though as that important!

1. Does anyone have any experiences with these companies? Real Journeys and Red Boat. They seem to be about the same price and comparable.

2. We were advised on another thread of mine to avoid the times when the day trippers from Queenstown would be on. Is a 10:40 cruise safe to avoid a bit of the congestion?

3. How long is it to drive from Te Anau to Milford Sound. I had thought 2 hours but I saw a comment that said it took someone 2.5 hours to get there. We've got two little kids that we'll have to get going so I imagine we'd have to leave by about 8am or so to be a bit early for the 10:40 cruise.

Any other advice would be great too!

Thanks The advice I've been given on my other thread about trip to the South Island was very helpful, so I thought I'd ask again on the cruise.

Steve1977

Hi,

Can't help you with the cruises but, AA NZ Driving Distances Calculator says 1hr 45m from Te Anau - Milford Sound 121km.

http://www.aatravel.co.nz/main/td-calculator.php

Cheers

comet555

Ok, so it really might be just 2 hours.

The tour site said 2.5 hours and then to arrive 30 min early. So by there calculations we'd need to leave about 7:30! Wouldn't be easy with two little kids, but I guess they could sleep in the car.

I think we'd probably be fine if we left at 8am... I hope

comet555

I phoned them up so probably just answered my own question... but thought I'd post what I found out in case anyone later on is interested. I called Real Journey's as they look like they have a slightly longer cruise so I went with them (for the moment anyway).

They said that the coaches arriving from Queenstown take the cruises from 1pm and onwards. She said the coaches arriving from Te Anau take the 10:30 and onwards cruises. Some of the cruises have no connection to the coaches though.

She said that the 12:30 cruise had no coaches connecting to it so it would be the best bet for avoiding some of the extra crowds. There were a few after that without connections but 12:30 is a good time for us.

So looks like we can sleep in a little bit longer!

Steve1977

Yeah, 8am should be fine.

I've always used the AA and found them to be spot on pretty much everytime with time calculations and thats going at a steady pace too.

Just a thought as well, check out tripadvisor for reviews of the cruises, Redboats don't rank too high, looks like mitre cruises take the top spot based on reviews.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractio...th_Island.html

Have a nice time, supposed to lovely round there, certainly on my list of things to do in the next few months before we move to oz!

comet555

Does anyone have input on the Glowworm caves in Te Anau?

We could possibly squeeze that in at 5:45 or the 7pm trip. I'm told the 7pm trip would still have some light left in the day on the trip over but on the way back it would be dark.

comet555

Thanks, so looks like the driving time should be closer to 2 hours then. That would be good. I've just booked on the 12:30 cruise so will probably leave at 10am or possibly 9:45. Shouldn't be a problem to do because we just need to get up and have breakfast.

I noticed the Mitre Cruises on Trip Advisor but haven't really heard anyone mention them on this forum. It always seems to be Real Journeys. Just booked with Real Journey's so should be fine. I opted for them because the tour seemed a good length and it didn't have any coaches coming for the 12:30 cruise. Should be lots of fun and I've got my new camera that I can play with too.

simonmarkellis

Make sure you fill up before leaving Te Anau as there aren't any more petrol stations...

luvwelly

I did the Real Journeys one which picked us up from our hotel in Te Anau.....be warned, it usually pours with rain - which means the waterfalls are better.
It's a hard road to drive...tour is a better if expensive option. If you happened to get a fair weather day it would be stunning.

Don't think they are allowed to take more passengers than seats so should be ok whichever one you get.

lapsed kiwi

Thanks for the info, Comet. I have recently booked on real journeys for week after next, have gone for the 1030 option but will be staying in a campervan within an hour's drive of Milford. The trips sound great and I'm sure you won't be disappointed
I read a few underwhelming reviews of the Te Anau glow worm cruise on tripadvisor so have decided to give it a miss this time. We are doing the Earnslaw farm cruise from Queenstown though

Him and Me

Hi,

We did the glow worm caves..many years ago...and have a vague memory of not letting/not recommended for young children into the caves....i may be very wrong on this cus like i say it was a long time ago!

I do remember it being very very dark in there though so maybe thats what i'm thinking of

SLH

Make sure you buy some sandfly spray!!!!! They bite like hell!!!!!

comet555

Yah, I've read a few crappy reviews on the glow worms so I'm not entirely sure if we'll do them or not. It doesn't seem like you get very long in the caves so not sure it's worth it.

We do have a 3.5 year old and a 6 year so our activities with them are very limited. We can't do a lot of the really fun/cool stuff so the glow worm caves seemed like something they could possibly do. The website says kids under 4 are free, and they show little kids on their video so they seem to be allowed. Whether it's a great idea or not I'm not sure.

comet555

Just thought I'd add a great website I found that lists lots of families activities.

http://www.kidzgo.co.nz/

I'm thinking we might skip the glow worms and do a Jet boat ride instead. I sort of dismissed those things as I didn't think our 3 year old would be old enough but it looks like he is.
http://www.luxmorejet.com/

I also discovered a climbing wall in Wanaka that takes kids 3 and up. So might give that a try too.
http://www.basecampwanaka.co.nz/cnc.html

There's also a place in Wanaka where you can drive quads (ages 6+) and they have dual cage ones for smaller kids to ride with their parents. So looks like my kids can do that too! They also have monster trucks that you can drive, which is pretty cool although more expensive of course.
http://www.adventurepark.co.nz/rides.php

I'll have to have look some more at that Kids Go site and see what else we can do in the other towns we'll be visiting. I expected our kids would be too young to do anything that we would consider "fun" so I'm pleasantly surprised that they can go jet boating, wall climbing and quading. Very cool. I also noticed that kids as young as 10 can go bungee jumping! Makes me kind of glad my youngest isn't 10

Stormer999

We took the coach trip out of Te Anau with Real Journeys for the Milford Sound trip...we were torn between that and Doubtful Sound which gets better reviews. We were on the small boat by choice and had a great time. Leaves TE Anau at 08:00hrs and takes 8 1/2 hrs to complete.
We also did the glow worm cave trip and I would not miss it.