Milford Road

Te Anau to Milford Sound through wild Fiordland.

The Milford Road runs roughly 119 km from Te Anau to Milford Sound (Piopiotahi), one of New Zealand's most celebrated drives. From the shore of Lake Te Anau it threads the glacier-carved Eglinton Valley past Mirror Lakes and Lake Gunn, climbs through the upper Hollyford Valley to The Divide, then bores through the single-lane, traffic-light-controlled Homer Tunnel, opened in 1954, descending a steep 1:10 grade to the fiord beneath Mitre Peak. Mind the Homer Tunnel queues, winter and spring avalanche risk, kea that gather at the portals, and fast-changing alpine weather that often closes the road.