Transport in Milford Sound in New Zealand is characterised by the remoteness of the area in which it is located. As a popular tourism destination in the South Island, Milford Sound (the fiord) and the village of the same name receive very large numbers of visitors. These tend to arrive and depart within just a few hours each day, as there is little accommodation at the village, leading to strong demand peaks for tourism services during the noon and early afternoon period. The journey from Te Anau is rated as one of the most photographic drives of the world.
To reduce this peaking and to allow further expansion without impacting the environment or reducing tourist amenity, various schemes have been proposed over the years for better links to the Sound, including a new tunnel, a monorail and a gondola lift.Over And Under: Linking Queenstown and Milford Sound - e.nz magazine, IPENZ, May/June 2007
Overview
Remote location Milford Sound is a fjord in the southwest of the South Island of New Zealand, located in Fiordland, the most remote and least populated region of the country. Divided from more populous areas to the east by the high southern spurs of the Southern Alps, its only entry apart from a difficult mountain road is a narrow channel to the Tasman Sea, which explorer Captain Cook did not enter or describe during his 1769/1770 journey with HMS Endeavour's mapped course well off this portion of coast.
Communication The first post office of the fjord was a tiny island. A rum barrel was hung on a tree where mail was posted and a white flag was raised to indicate unsent mail. Passing ships would then stop and browse the mails. If any were addressed to a location they were heading they would take it with them.
Tourism bottleneck By virtue of its great natural features, Milford Sound has long since become a major tourist attraction, receiving numbers of visitors unprecedented for such a remote location, over 550,000 per year. This was expected to rise to 750,000 by 2012. While this expected rise in numbers did not happen immediately, by 2019 before the COVID pandemic, about 1,230,000 visited per annum (including crew in cruise ships). A study had found that of all tourists travelling the South Island of New Zealand in summer, 54% travelled the Milford Road at some point.Milford Sound Transport - Issues and Options (GHD Ltd for Venture Southland, 2005)
Increasing the difficulties for tourism to the sound is the location within Fiordland National Park, which prevents substantial accommodation from being built - around 90% of all tourists are therefore only on a day trip, and around 80% return in the late afternoon to Te Anau, or Queenstown, a 12-hour round trip. Due to the long trip from Queenstown, a majority of tourists arrive and depart quickly, leading to a great peaking of demand at the day-cruises terminal where the large tourist boats lie empty for most of the day, becoming extremely active only during the 3–4 hours around and past noon.
The above difficulties in reaching this extremely popular destination have led to a number of serious proposals on how to better connect the attractions of Milford Sound to the rest of New Zealand, and how to increase tourism without reducing sustainability for this national natural treasure. In conjunction with these plans, proposals are also being considered how to upgrade the existing road to Milford Sound.
Existing travel methods
Motor vehicle
Tourists to Milford Sound arrive mainly via coach over Milford Road State Highway 94, a high mountain road prone to avalanches in winter. In 2019 about 870,000 people visited by road. The road was only opened in 1953, after Homer Tunnel was finished after almost 20 years of intermittent work. The road is one of the more dangerous public roads in New Zealand, with injury crash rates around 65% higher than the rest of New Zealand's network, and a fatality crash rate of almost twice average (per vehicle kilometre travelled),Strategy Study Summary Report - State Highway 94 Te Anau to Milford Sound - Transit New Zealand, September 2001 making it the third most dangerous section of New Zealand's State Highway network (as of 2008).Country's deadliest roads identified - NZPA via Newstalk ZB, Sunday 27 January 2008
Stopping is prohibited on long stretches due to rock or snow avalanche dangers, and the road is often closed in winter, with the carrying of snow chains mandatory during snow conditions. Helicopters are used during winter to drop explosives onto snow buildup zones above the road in order to cause controlled avalanches, and the avalanche control programme is world-renowned. However even this does not absolutely eliminate the danger that road traffic may be hit by an uncontrolled event, especially in the area of the Homer Tunnel portals. The last known fatality from an avalanche on the road was in 1983. Drivers are encouraged to start the drive from Te Anau with full tanks of fuel, as there are very limited options to refuel thereafter. All of this does not discourage up to 50 coaches and hundreds of private cars daily from making the 608 km round trip from Queenstown (slightly less from Invercargill). Almost 60% travelled via coach.
Future increases in traffic will have to take into account the limitations of the existing road, which features various areas lacking passing lanes (especially problematic if cars are held up behind slow coaches on the steeper sections), a number of one-lane bridges and a narrow carriageway width. The Homer Tunnel is a traffic-light controlled one-way route during peak summer periods, as it is not wide enough to allow coaches to pass each other (though passing bays are provided). Improvements to both the road and Homer Tunnel are planned by Transit New Zealand, though a widening of the tunnel is considered unlikely due to the high costs involved.
In the 2010s, the road received a variable message sign (VMS) traffic information system to inform travellers on the road of incidents and closures, in a more timely fashion than the old, hand-changed signs. The system received a 2012 New Zealand Engineering Excellence Award, partly due to the information system using satellite links as their primary communication system making unnecessary the much more costly laying of communications cables along the road. The message signs are powered by small hydro-power systems with battery back-ups.
Watercraft An increasing number of tourists arrive via long-distance sea travel, such as on cruise ships entering the sound while stopping over in New Zealand from overseas or travelling from (the relatively distant) New Zealand harbours, or alternatively on private yachts. By 2019 the combined numbers of passengers and crew on cruise ships had reached 300,000. Few smaller vessels outside the cruise ship trade presently travel along the rugged southwest coastline of the Island to visit the sound, but numbers are unknown.
Aircraft
Numbers of tourists arrive via small planes or helicopters, or use them to overfly the Sound as part of the trip. In 2004, Milford Sound Airport had approximately 16,000 aircraft movements, most associated with flights to and from Queenstown. Around 35 aircraft can operate at the airport at any one time, though this level has not yet been reached. As flights can be spread over the day better than coach trips, only about 25 aircraft operated here during peak times of the day in 2004. In 2019, 60,000 tourists accessed Milford Sound by air.
The Department of Conservation has noted that aircraft noise and activity in the Sound are often remarked on by tourists as being unexpectedly substantial (even more so on the nearby Milford Track). DOC is therefore encouraging the use of larger and less noisy aircraft. In 2007, flight restrictions were announced, limiting the number of flights in the Fiordland area and the number of operators to 2004-2005 levels via a concession system, with 23 licenses only (the number of operators in 2004-2005). Operators are also required to pay for flight monitoring, and further restrictions may be declared if more than 25% of National Park visitors consider the aircraft noise annoying. Some operators have already complained about the restrictions, and DOC has noted that flight numbers could conceivably be increased if noise emissions would be reduced.
Walking
There exists one main track into Milford Sound from the eastern side of the main range of the Southern Alps, the Milford Track. Starting at the northernmost edge of Lake Te Anau, the track takes four days to complete and includes one mountain pass and many areas prone to flooding. Due to concerns about degrading the natural landscape, the track can be walked on a quota system only (and only westwards, with walkers having to stop at designated huts every night). With only several dozen walkers allowed on the track every day, places in the quota system are usually booked out many months in advance from the administering New Zealand Department of Conservation.
Proposed improvements
Bus pooling
In winter, during those times that the road remains open, coach numbers on the Milford Road have been observed as not dropping in the same degree as visitor numbers, with coaches often travelling largely empty. It has been proposed that initiatives be considered to force or entice tourism operators to pool their transport resources for greater efficiency.
Mandatory park & ride
It has been proposed that a park & ride shuttle bus facility should be established at a location such as Te Anau, Te Anau Downs or Eglinton Valley. Access to Milford Sound would be restricted to bus shuttles operating from here (and private vehicles during off-peak times). Staggering the departure would help reduce congestion both on the road and at the viewing spots. However, the proposal was considered to reduce tourism operator and tourist freedom, as well as to add transfer times to an already very long journey. Finally, it would take away the free right of access. As such, it was negatively reviewed and is unlikely to proceed.
Other options
Expanding Milford Sound Airport to allow larger aircraft to fly tour groups in and out of the sound was also considered, but considered problematic for tourist amenity in the Sound, and for reasons of high travel cost.
Other options considered were the limitation of access to certified/compliant users (i.e. bus companies, similar to the 'mandatory park & ride' option), introducing a booking system for 'road slots', or the placing of tolls along the Milford Road. All these methods share problems of restricting access, therefore making visits to Milford Sound more complicated and costly.
Proposed new methods
Haast-Hollyford Highway
The Haast-Hollyford road or Haast-Hollyford Highway is a long-standing proposal to link Haast, a coastal town north of Milford Sound, via the Hollyford Valley to Milford Sound and Te Anau in the South Island of New Zealand. Proposals for this road have been mooted since the 1880s. It would allow a multi-day round trip, for example from Queenstown to Te Anau to Milford Sound to Haast and back to Queenstown. However, high costs associated with building around of new road in a remote area (estimated at NZ$165–275 million) and issues with constructing a new road through Fiordland National Park were noted, in addition to the new route possibly increasing congestion on the shared part of the route (from the Hollyford Valley to Milford Sound).
In April 2001, a tabloid publication was circulated via daily newspapers in the South Island by backers of the plan for the Haast-Hollyford link. The publication was widely criticised by environmentalist groups, including Fish and Game New Zealand, the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand"Road proposals similar to smashing the Mona Lisa" (Press release). Forest and Bird. 11 April 2001. and the Green Party.