Scuba Diving Trips Milford Sound – Descend Scuba
Dive Trips – Milford Sound Diving Trips
Milford Sound is breathtakingly beautiful both above and below the water
Descend Dive, located in Milford, takes guided dive trips into Milford Sound, offering a unique diving experience in this renowned world heritage marine reserve.
Diving in New Zealand’s Milford Sound / Piopiotahi marine reserve is a unique experience that can’t be found anywhere else on Earth. Descend Scuba Diving provide guided diving for all levels of experience, from first-time diver to experienced professionals.
Descend is committed to an approach of high safety and a level of service to your experience to make for a fantastic, memorable day.
The Dive trips start at Milford Sound at 8:00 am and at 2:00 pm at the Deepwater Basin road boat ramp, and the boat returns to shore by 2:00 pm.
Milford Sound Diving Experience
Unique to Milford’s underwater world are sheer cliff faces, providing the most spectacular Fiord wall diving and a unique ecosystem of black coral trees. The coral trees have a stunning white appearance over a jet-black skeleton and are usually only found in deep water trenches.
Thanks to Milford’s heavy rainfall making for a mix of fresh and saltwater on the surface with huge mountains casting their shadows over the waters, enough light is blocked to allow these beautiful coral trees to call Milford’s Piopiotahi marine reserve home.
Whilst diving, you may also see dolphins, seals, sharks, eels, octopus, stingray, crayfish, nudibranch and over 150 different fish species.
Milford Sound Dive Tour for divers
with drysuit / drysuit qualification
Price: $395 per diver.
Dive Trip Duration: 8 hours approx
Returns: 5:00 pm
Meet time: Milford Sound at 9:00 am Deepwater Basin road boat ramp.
This tour is for qualified divers who hold a drysuit qualification and hold extensive drysuit experience.
The standard pricing includes high-end Scuba Force diving equipment and a Scuba Force drysuit including undersuit, hood and gloves, wrist computer and a hands-free torch. Please bring your thermal underwear to wear under the undersuit.
Unique to Milford’s underwater world are sheer cliff faces, providing the most spectacular Fiord wall diving and a unique ecosystem of black coral trees. The coral trees have a stunning white appearance over a jet-black skeleton and usually are only found in deep water trenches.
Thanks to Milford’s heavy rainfall making for a mix of fresh and saltwater on the surface with huge mountains casting their shadows over the waters, enough light is blocked to allow these beautiful coral trees to call Milford’s Piopiotahi marine reserve home.
While diving and cruising, you can see dolphins, seals, penguins, sharks, eels, octopus, stingray, crayfish, nudibranch and over 150 fish species.
Nitrox upgrade and specialty courses can be arranged as extras in the booking process.
Milford Sound Dive Tour for divers
without drysuit experience
Price: $495 per diver.
Dive Trip Duration: 8 hours approx
Returns: 5:00 pm
Meet time: Milford Sound at 9:00 am Deepwater Basin road boat ramp.
This tour is for qualified divers with confident buoyancy skills but no experience diving in drysuits. The tour is set up, so you can enjoy two scenic dives while seamlessly incorporating drysuit training.
You will receive some online learning a couple of days before the trip commencement date.
Our dives include wall diving in a group where good buoyancy skills are essential. If you are a freshly qualified diver unsure about your buoyancy skills, consider booking the first-time dive or inquire about a refresher course.
The standard pricing includes high-end Scuba Force diving equipment and a Scuba Force drysuit including undersuit, hood and gloves, wrist computer and a hands-free torch.Please bring your thermal underwear to wear under the undersuit.
Unique to Milford’s underwater world are sheer cliff faces, providing the most spectacular Fiord wall diving and a unique ecosystem of black coral trees. The coral trees have a stunning white appearance over a jet-black skeleton and usually are only found in deep water trenches.
While diving and cruising, you can see dolphins, seals, penguins, sharks, eels, octopus, stingray, crayfish, nudibranch and over 150 fish species.
Nitrox upgrade and specialty courses can be added as extras in the booking process.
First Time Diver Experiences on Milford Sound.
Price: $495 per diver.
Dive Trip Duration: 8 hours approx
Returns: 5:00 pm
Meet time: Milford Sound at 9:00 am Deepwater Basin road boat ramp.
N.B. We generally take a maximum of 2 first timers per trip
Your guide will explain the basics of diving, conduct some in-water exercises at a shallow depth and then take you on a full dive of up to 12 meters deep for up to 40 minutes.
The single dive gets you going for the introduction to the world of diving.
Unique to Milford’s underwater world are sheer cliff faces, providing the most spectacular Fiord wall diving and a unique ecosystem of black coral trees.
The coral trees have a stunning white appearance over a jet-black skeleton and usually are only found in deep water trenches.
Thanks to Milford’s heavy rainfall making for a mix of fresh and saltwater on the surface with huge mountains casting their shadows over the waters, enough light is blocked to allow these beautiful coral trees to call Milford’s Piopiotahi marine reserve home.
While diving, you may also see dolphins, seals, sharks, eels, octopus, stingray, crayfish, nudibranchs and over 150 fish species.
Consider booking this tour if you are a first-time diver or unqualified diver.
Meet time in Milford Sound is at 9 am at the Deepwater Basin road boat ramp, Milford Sound. (Please check your email the day before departure in case of any changes to meet time, delays, weather etc.
Milford Sound Diving Trip Itinerary
Your dive trip starts at Deepwater Basin with a thorough briefing before we board our boat. It is a stable 7-metre catamaran ‘Pacific Runner’ purpose-built for diving with an extended dive platform with a drop-down ladder, making it easy to enter or exit the water.
‘Descend Scubadiving’ provide top quality diving equipment with warm 8mm semi-dry suits, under vests, gloves, hoods and booties, and you will be thoroughly briefed on any unfamiliar equipment. We provide everything you will need for your dive on Milford Sound.
We will be cruising Milford Sound for approximately 6 hours with two dives on sites chosen depending on divers experience level, weather and wind direction. We will most likely dive into the marine reserve on the Northern side of Milford Sound, taking the time to enjoy these majestic surroundings and see seals and penguins. Occasionally, we may meet a pod of dolphins along with numerous species of birdlife.
Whilst diving Milford sound, you will experience many species of fish and the opportunity to see the legendary black coral trees (actually, they are white) that can be as tall as 6 meters high, along with red, white and numerous other soft corals also a chance to see marine life entirely unique for the area of Fiordland that is regarded as world-class diving area.
Hot drinks, soup and cookies are provided for your surface interval between the dives with gourmet sandwiches for lunch, whilst getting a close look at some of the thundering high waterfalls that plummet down the steep mountain faces of the Sound. We can even let you off the boat onto land for a short walk through native bush to a freshwater pool where you can experience one of the Fiords largest waterfalls.
Travel Information Milford Sound
GETTING THERE:
Arriving by car is the easiest option. Plenty of parking is available at our meeting spot in Deepwater Basin.
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Drive Time from Queenstown is 4 hours one way
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Drive Time from Te Anau is 2 hours one way
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Drive Time from Invercargill is 4 hours one way.
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Divers staying in Te Anau without their own transport will need to organise your own shuttle Transport that operates from Te Anau’s lake front departing at 6-30 am for the scenic road trip into Milford via the scenic Fiordland National Park passing through spectacular forests, soaring mountain peaks, passing reflected mirror lakes and numerous waterfalls along the way and plentiful birdlife and in particular the local cheeky Kea parrots.
Bus connections available:
For our 8am start time you can book transport with Trips and Tramps from Te Anau to Milford Sound in the morning at 6:30am, arrives at around 8:15am in Milford Sound which is fine for our meet times. You can then go back to Te Anau after the dive tour with Tracknet who have a departure at 5pm or with Intercity who have a departure at 3:25pm from Milford Sound with a stop in Te Anau which also continues back to Queenstown.
If you come from Queenstown you will need to take a bus the previous day to Te Anau, overnight in Te Anau and then take the above option back to Queenstown or alternatively come to Milford Sound the day beforehand, stay in the Milford Sound Lodge and then return with Intercity the following day back to Queenstown.
Accommodation options nearby:
- The Milford Sound Lodge is the only accommodation in Milford Sound which offers riverside chalet accommodation, backpacker-style rooms and a campervan park. The PioPio Cafe and Restaurant offers dining from breakfast to dinner. Books are out well in advance, so reservations are essential.
- Gunn’s camp nestled in the Hollyford valley is the next closest accommodation option, about a 1 hour and 10-minute drive away. Gunn’s camp offers rustic accommodation, including cabins, backpacker rooms, and open spaces for caravans and camping. History is alive with a museum attached to the camp, wood-fired showers, and off-the-grid solar and generator electricity.
- Cascade Creek is the closest DOC campground to Milford Sound, which has 120 non-powered tent sites and is about a 50 minutes drive from Milford Sound.
- Knobs Flat Accommodation offers eco-based accommodation in the Fiordland National Park, including studio units and campsites. Knobs flat is about a 1-hour drive from Milford Sound.
- Te Anau is the closest town to Milford Sound and offers many accommodation options, including a supermarket and many shops and restaurants. The drive from Te Anau to Milford Sound is around 2 hours.
Milford Sound is breathtakingly beautiful.
Both above and below the water.
