We’ve been lucky enough to visit Milford Sound in both summer and winter, and can honestly say I loved it even more in winter! The beautiful drive from Te Anau to Milford Sound becomes even more special with the now snow-capped mountains; the snow doesn’t usually continue past the Homer Tunnel, so you can still access almost all the activities that you would do in summer.
You often end up with some of the most incredible views all to yourself, not to mention you won’t be eaten alive by sandflies whilst enjoying them!
But that’s just a brief overview: in this detailed guide we’ll take you through all the pros, as well as the cons of visiting Milford Sound in winter.
Pros of visiting Milford Sound in winter
Less crowds - you can get beauty spots all to yourself!
Of course I had to start with the number one benefit of a Milford Sound trip in winter, and that’s the lack of crowds. Milford Sound is deservedly one of the most loved attractions in New Zealand, and almost every South Island itinerary will include a stop here.
This means that it’s rare you’ll get to enjoy this majestic landscape with anything less than an army of other people.
If you’re the type of person that loves to experience nature in complete peace and serenity, then a winter trip will be much more up your street. Not only will you get to appreciate the landscape with far fewer people, but you’ll also have less trouble parking.
This enables you to flit about more and cram extra stops into your Milford itinerary. For me this is the number one reason to make a winter trip.
I couldn’t believe my luck when watching sunset with just one other person, when I’d seen so many pictures of lines of photographers! It really was a dream come true.
There are less sandflies - you can actually sit and relax in normally sandfly ridden spots
Now, depending on how much time you’ve spent in NZ - or how much research you’ve done - you’ll probably know something of the outdoor lovers arch nemesis: the sandfly. Now this isn’t your ordinary mossie, this is a ferocious blood sucker of the highest degree.
They tend to hang around in swarms and plague some of New Zealand’s most beautiful places. Some say that places this beautiful had to have a downside!
We’ve had our fair share (hundreds and hundreds) of sandfly bites when exploring New Zealand in the warmer months and the itchy bumps tend to take much longer to go down than your average mosquito bite.
Now it’s far from a reason not to get out there, but it is a wonderful bonus of exploring places like Milford Sound in winter. Want to sit and enjoy the sunset in comfort rather than marching up and down the beach in a bid to stave off the hungry masses? Come in winter!
Now I can’t say that there are literally zero of them in winter, because I did see a couple here and there, but I didn’t get a single bite and we spent three full days exploring Milford Sound.
A reason for a winter visit if ever there was one!
Almost all activities are still open
Now this is a crucial one, because if most things were closed then I would always recommend coming in the warmer months. I’m happy to say that that’s not the case. There are reduced sailings for cruising and kayaking trips, but they do still operate, and booking on them is easy because of point number one - less crowds!
Pretty much anything you can do in summer, can be done in winter too: cruise, kayak, hike, fly over the fjord, stay at the lodge, eat at the restaurant - all the big draw cards.
There’s one small exception which we note in the cons, and honestly it’s no biggie!
Now you’ll have to wrap up warmly as the temperatures will be low, but Milford Sound is not known for its warmth at any time of year - and we needed three layers in summer - so to me that’s no biggie.
We might have got lucky, but I never needed thermals in winter at the Sound (although I highly recommend bringing them just incase).
It’s much cheaper to stay at the Sound itself
If you’ve dreamed about staying at the gorgeous Milford Sound Lodge, but baulked at the summer prices, then this is your chance! It is significantly cheaper to stay at the lodge during the winter and if you possibly can spend one night at Milford Sound then I would highly recommend it.
Spending a night allows you to catch a sunset, go stargazing and visit the local glow worm colony. As well as that, staying in the lodge is a great activity in itself.
We had already treated ourselves to a night at the lodge a few years ago after completing the Milford Track which we’d viewed as a once in a lifetime experience. When we decided to make a last minute trip in winter and saw how much cheaper it was, we decided to make it a twice in a lifetime experience!
The views even from the cheapest rooms (which is what we booked) are incredible and we even saw Kea swooping among the mountaintops right from the sofa!
Things can change of course, but winter prices the last few years have been dramatically lower than summer.
The weather is at its most stable
Now depending on how you feel about it, this could also be a con. Milford Sound is one of the wettest places on earth with 200 days of rain a year. And when it rains in Milford, it really rains. We had 200mm of rain on one day on our last visit!
This creates many, many extra waterfalls which are definitely a sight to behold - you will still have giant powerfall waterfalls in clear conditions too, you just won’t get the extra ones.
If you’d trade extra waterfalls for the chance to spend time on the walking trails, watching a sunset, stargazing and all the other outdoor activities that are less pleasant in the rain, then you’ll be pleased to know that Milford Sound in winter has more stable weather. The wettest months of the year are actually the height of summer, December and January.
It doesn’t mean it won’t rain in winter of course, but it is more stable. We were staggered to have three full days of sunshine on our recent trip. We had never seen the sunshine in Milford, and this was our third trip!
Greater flexibility for good weather windows
The next pro is linked to the above, and it is the fact that you don’t need to book your accommodation so far in advance, so you may be able to choose a decent weather window.
Of course this does leave you open to risk that you might not get a reservation at the lodge, but if you were only planning on staying in Te Anau then you’ll have no problem booking late.
We booked to stay in the lodge the night before but I wouldn’t recommend this just incase! I’d call the lodge ahead of time and see how bookings are with the fall back of staying in Te Anau if it doesn’t go your way.
A possible dusting of snow
Depending on the month, and at the whim of the weather generally, you may get a dusting of snow on Mitre Peak and the surrounding mountains.
We had hoped for this and didn’t get it, but we did get a decent smattering on all the mountains along the drive into Milford Sound (along the Milford Road), and it definitely added to the wow factor.
I’ve seen pictures where the mountains up to the Homer Tunnel are absolutely covered in snow and they look absolutely spectacular. Perhaps we’ll have to make a fourth visit one day………
If you’re really keen for snow my guess is that you’d be much more likely to see it in July and August than June. Of course June, and even May can have huge snowfall, but generally further into winter is a safer bet. It will affect road conditions though and we’ll cover that in the cons.
The Cons of visiting Milford Sound in winter
The Milford Road could be hairy
For me this is the number one con and the only one I personally consider to be a genuine downside. If you do head along the Milford Road and there is a very cold snap with ice and snow, then driving conditions can become pretty hairy.
You may need snow chains and you will need to be confident driving in adverse conditions. It’s also worth noting that occasionally the Milford Road will have to close due to avalanche risk.
They will always try and reopen the road as quickly as possible, but how fast that is depends on the risk and damage. Therefore the absolute worst case scenario is that you cannot reach the Sound or get stuck there.
Most Milford winter trips go off without a hitch, and damage to the road via landslides can even happen in summer if there is very heavy rain, but it’s something to bear in mind.
Our experience was that they was no snow on the road, but there were short sections of black ice. The road was ploughed and gritted every day when we were there, but the black ice still meant we had to take it slowly and carefully.
We had the cheapest, smallest car we could get our hands on and it handled it fine, but I’d be lying if I said the descent from Homer Tunnel down those first few hairpins wasn’t a little nerve-racking.
I would recommend a decent car if visiting in winter if possible, but having said that we saw a multitude of other small cars on our visit and no one had trouble.
Shorter daylight hours (but still enough in my opinion)
I thought I should include this, but I personally didn’t find it a problem. The sun will rise somewhere between 8am - 8.30am in winter and set around 4.30pm - 5pm depending on the month.
It’s much shorter days than summer, but at the same time it’s not like Iceland where you might only get 5 daylight hours.
I actually quite liked the timing because I could get up to watch sunrise, and go stargazing and look for glow worms, all without completely exhausting myself as I tend to do on summer trips!
If you only have one day to spend at Milford Sound you may feel differently though.
The boat to Lady Bowen Falls will not be operating
This was the one activity con that I mentioned earlier. Ordinarily outside of winter time you can take a small boat over to Lady Bowen Falls for a closer look at this majestic waterfall.
However, this boat service doesn’t operate in winter or during Covid. So if you’re visiting in summer and the pandemic is still going on then you won’t get there anyway!
It’s also worth noting that you can get an excellent view of Lady Bowen Falls from both the MIlford Foreshore Walk and any of the boat cruises. Our photos are all taken from the foreshore walk to give you some idea of what a good view you can still get.
I was still a little disappointed because there’s nothing like getting close enough to feel the spray, but at least you can still get a lovely view.
Potential track closures/adverse conditions on hikes along the Milford Road
Again track closures can take place year round, but you may find some of the hiking trails along the Milford Road less suitable in winter than summer.
On our visit, all but one hike was open, and it was beyond fantastic to have places like Key Summit to ourselves! The one that wasn’t open was Gertrude Saddle - the number one hike I wanted to do. And when I say not open, I mean too dangerous as ice covers the upper portion of the track.
The only other hike we didn’t do - that I had wanted to - was Lake Marian. This was purely because it stays in shade for much of winter and therefore becomes icy and damp and it just didn’t sound as nice as the warmer months (but by all means you could give it a go!).
Other popular trails such as Key Summit, Lake Gunn, Lake Mistletoe and places like Mirror Lakes were entirely unaffected and we rarely saw another soul on them!
If you’re not an avid hiker then it won’t affect you at all because the shorter trails are all open and unchanged, and as mentioned you can do walks like Lake Marian, but it gets slippery.
The short ‘walks’ (they are almost too short to be called walks!) at Milford Sound itself are all open in winter.
It will be very cold if camping
Only the hardiest and best prepared will enjoy camping at Milford Sound or along the Milford Road (in designated campsites) in winter.
The less hardy amongst us will find it a less than pleasant experience and that can mean that if your budget is tight and camping is your only option that it won’t be very enjoyable.
However, that doesn’t go for campervans. I spoke to several people campervanning in the area and they all said the heating systems were so good that it was totally fine.
The final verdict
I probably don’t even need to write this because it’s fairly obvious that I am team Milford in winter! Of course ideally you’d be able to do both, but as it’s rarely possible for most people to do this, then I would highly recommend visiting in winter. If it’s your only chance to visit and you’ve been weighing up whether it will be worth it then definitely go for it!
In my opinion the pros far outweigh the cons. Of course there is always that slight chance of issues on the Milford Road but I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you!
If you’re looking for more information on what to do in the area, we have you covered in our detailed guide to Milford Sound.
We also have a guide on what it’s like to visit New Zealand in winter more generally if you’re planning a bigger trip.
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