Lonely Planet™ · Thorn Tree Forum · 2020

Night camping near Mount Cook or visiting Milford Sound?

Country forums / Australia, New Zealand & Antarctica / New Zealand

HI guys
We are taking a 3 week honeymoon in NZ at Christmas and CAN'T WAIT!! Have planned the 3 weeks well, around the South island, though are stuck on a number of days we have around Mt Cook, Queenstown and Milford Sound. The reason we are stuck is the amount of driving we already are doing in our trip, and based on other trips, are aware that driving for 3-6 hours day after day is less optimal for us since we get so tired and also since we want to be out being active, rather then driving all the time!
We have 5 nights to spend between Tekapo (actually have an airbnb in Twizel) and Franz Josef Glacier. We had planned to drive north and camp in White Horse HIll camping ground for the night, with some hiking both days, then drive to Queenstown. This gives us 4 nights to do Queenstown, Milford Sound, plus a night (hike up and back) on the Routeburn Trail - a MUST for us! Wish we could do the whole thing.
However, this means big drives every day if we wish to get to Milford Sound. Since we then drive up to Franz Josef, and the day after 6 h up to Marahau.
SO we are considering either dropping the night at Mt Cook, or dropping the trip to Milford Sound. Any thoughts on which would be most crazy NOT to do? Thanks!

I would probably keep Milford Sound, some Routeburn Track, and Aoraki / Mt Cook, and drop the West Coast drive to Franz Josef Glacier. Although that depends on whether you're planning to then head north to Abel Tasman NP etc.

So if dropping FJG is not an option, I would probably opt to keep Aoraki / Mt Cook myself, but it is a tough choice. If you keep Milford Sound, I would certainly recommend the Key Summit walk from The Divide on the Milford Sound Road ... it's the western end of the Routeburn and very good.

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I second Ian - would definitely give up Franz Josef first. If you're going to give up Milford Sound, you can still catch the Routeburn from the Queenstown side. If you are solid hikers, you can hike to the summit and back to the carpark on the Queenstown side in a day.

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I'm a little confused about the days - what a pity you are stuck in Twizel - I suppose that was the only accommodation you could get around Xmas? Can you drop the AirBnB and replace it with camping at Whitehorse Hill, since it sounds like you have a tent & camping gear?
1. Twizel to Mt Cook (50 min)
2. Mt Cook to QTN (4 hr) - 2N
3. Day tour to Milford Sound (13 hr if in a coach or coach/cruise/fly)
4. AM in QTN; Pm drive to Wanaka
5. Full day drive from Wanaka to FJG

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Appreciate the advice! Yes Twizel was since we couldnt find any good accomm in Tekapo. Will look into dropping the airbnb and camping instead.
Thanks!

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thanks so much for the advice! The notifications didnt pop up so I only just saw these replies. Yeah we need to go to FJG since we are heading up north to Abel Tasman. Thanks for your thoughts!

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thanks for the advice! We were planning to do the Routeburn from the QT side -just out and back overnight (instead of the 3 days hike from A to B, due to lack of time. We are heading up to Abel Tasman park so dropping FJG is not really an option. So the question was more if its OK to stay in QT, do the routeburn and the other days just be in QT and enjoy, so we are not driving all the time, and skip Milford Sound, or whether this is just a massive shame?

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