Te Anau is a small town with a large job. It sits on the shore of the lake of the same name, the biggest in the South Island, and serves as the gateway to Fiordland National Park, one of the wildest places in New Zealand. About two thousand people live here year-round, many of them working in the tourism that comes through, and in summer the main street is full of campervans and people with boots and cameras.
What lies beyond is extraordinary. Fiordland is a mountainous rainforest country of glacier-carved valleys and sea inlets, shaped by some of the heaviest rainfall in the country. Milford Sound, at the end of the 119-kilometre road from Te Anau, receives so much rain that waterfalls appear by the dozen after a downpour. The Milford Road itself passes through the Eglinton Valley, with its wide flat floor and beech forest, then the Mirror Lakes, where the peaks reflect on calm water, and finally the Homer Tunnel, a rough-hewn tunnel about 1.2 kilometres long that was completed in 1953 after decades of work, with a steep descent to the sound on the other side.
The riding is superb but needs care. The road is mostly well surfaced, with gentle bends in the valley and tighter ones near the tunnel, and in wet weather it can be slippery. Avalanches close the road in winter and spring, and snow chains may be required. Rain can arrive suddenly, and you should expect to be wet at some point. Sandflies swarm at every stop, so carry repellent.
In town you can find a bed, a meal and a bakery. Fuel is essential here, since services beyond Te Anau are almost non-existent, so fill up before you set out for Milford and back. The Te Anau Wildlife Centre keeps takahē, a large flightless bird once thought extinct and found again in the Fiordland mountains in 1948, and it is a good rainy-day stop. Boat trips to the glowworm caves on the far side of the lake are popular.
Spend the evening on the lakeshore with the light fading on the Murchison Mountains. Rise early the next day for Milford, before the coaches arrive.