Rudyard Kipling very famously (and unsourcedly) called Milford Sound the Eighth Wonder of the World. I’ve often called Rudyard Kipling the Eighth Most Uninteresting Writer Based on Half of a Book I Read in High School, so the connection was immediate. Put simply, Milford Sound is the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen. My journey to Milford Sound started very similar to many others. There are quite a few tour operators that will trot you out to the Sound for a scenic boat tour, and the one with the best reviews on Tripadvisor was a lovely organization called Real Journeys. If you’re in Queenstown they’re hard to miss. Or even if you’re on the internet, they’re hard to miss. The second you type in New Zealand to Google, for about the next six months all you’ll see are Real Journeys ads. I found them a good value with great service. They sent a taxi to pick me up at 7am from the Hilton (included in the tour ticket) to take me to the bus station. It was a bit chilly that morning, so the taxi driver very graciously offered to let me stay in the cab where it was warm. Soon enough the bus pulled around and we were on our way. Real Journeys has coaches that are perfectly suited for sightseeing in a place as dramatic as the Milford Road, with clear glass windows and seats that are angled towards the windows. Milford Sound is near pretty much nothing,... read more