Milford Road

The Milford Road (State Highway 94) is a 119-kilometer mountain road in New Zealand's South Island, connecting Te Anau with Milford Sound in Fiordland National Park. The route passes through some of the most pristine wilderness in New Zealand, traversing ancient beech forests, alongside mirror-still lakes, through the dramatic Homer Tunnel, and into the sheer-walled Cleddau Valley. Milford Sound itself, described by Rudyard Kipling as the "eighth wonder of the world," awaits at the road's end.

The Homer Tunnel is the road's most remarkable feature - a 1.2-kilometer-long, single-lane tunnel carved through solid granite over twenty years (1935-1954) using manual labor and minimal machinery. The tunnel descends at a 1-in-10 gradient from the eastern portal to the western side, where it emerges into the dramatic Cleddau Valley. Traffic through the tunnel is controlled by traffic lights, with vehicles traveling in alternating directions. The descent from the tunnel through the Cleddau Valley, with sheer rock walls and cascading waterfalls on both sides, is one of the most awe-inspiring stretches of road in the Southern Hemisphere.

The road passes several notable stops, including Mirror Lakes, where perfectly still tarns reflect the surrounding mountains; the Avenue of the Disappearing Mountain, an optical illusion where the mountain ahead appears to shrink as you approach; and the Chasm, where the Cleddau River has carved spectacular rock formations. Avalanche risk closes the road periodically in winter, and heavy rainfall can cause temporary closures at any time of year. Fiordland receives an average of 6,813 millimeters of rain annually, creating hundreds of temporary waterfalls that cascade down the cliff faces after storms.