Things to do in Fiordland National Park

Fiordland National Park covers 12,500 square kilometres of the South Island's south-west corner, the largest national park in the country and the core of the Te Wahipounamu World Heritage Area. It holds fourteen fjords, though only Milford Sound (288 km, roughly 4 hours from Queenstown) and Doubtful Sound have any organised access at all.

Doubtful Sound has no road: a boat crosses Lake Manapouri (about 1 hour), then a bus climbs Wilmot Pass (about 45 minutes), which makes it a full-day trip, never a half-day add-on. Milford is a two-hour drive from Te Anau, so a Queenstown coach excursion runs 12 to 13 hours door to door.

Most of the park's interior, including habitat for takahe and kea, is reachable only by boat, helicopter, or one of the Great Walks such as the Milford or Kepler Track, so almost nobody sees more than a fraction of it in a single trip.