Sounds like you want something for nothing.

Lol, funny thread.

The Milford track is New Zealand highest profile tramp, and marketed by DOC as "the finest walk in the world". In season, it is known to book out pretty much immediately when bookings open (6 months in advance). As such for OP, the pricing structure is pretty much meaningless.

If you want to do "milford sound", it is relatively cheap and easy to drive in, take a boat ride, and drive out. (would recommend, the drive in is amazing). If you want to camp there is a range of Nice but dirt cheap DOC camp sites available in the area with road access.

If you want to hike, as other have said, there are hundreds of other tracks in the country, many of which are also amazing, and are hardly used. Hut fees are very cheep for these.

PetAT:

Not my loss, I dont want to play into that game, I got Aus, Sweden and all of Europe, better places than the self prompting tourist traps we got down here that are now targeting hard working kiwis too. But hey, maybe a couple of us will go there myself on the danger season since thats what they are enabling.

Having done the Milford Track...

1. There's not many places where you can get 500m away from the track, let alone finding a place to camp

2. Milford gets 6m of rain per year. Sleeping without a tent is likely to see you with a very wet sleeping bag

3. It's over-rated... there are many other places at least as good (e.g. Nelson Lakes, Kahurangi, Waikaremoana)