Why this ride
A mountain fjord road from Te Anau, New Zealand to Milford Sound, New Zealand, via Eglinton Valley. Key character: glacial valleys; tunnel; waterfalls; fiord. Surface: paved.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Milford Road
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 126 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 1 h 51
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Scenic road chapters
Milford Road (SH94)
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 11 km this is Milford Road (SH94), a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Rider note
Check the pass is open before you commit to it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 11 km
- Named road
- Milford Road (SH94)
- Pass
- Homer Tunnel
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Te Anau
Te Anau is the last proper town before Fiordland, and nearly everything about it is a preparation for the wild country beyond. It sits on the eastern shore of the lake of the same name, the biggest lake in the South Island, with the Kepler and Murchison mountains rising on the far side, and about two thousand people live here, serving the hikers, boaters and bus tours that pass through. Maori knew the area as a source of greenstone and a place to hunt weka and eel. In 1948 a doctor named Geoffrey Orbell found a small population of takahe, a large flightless bird thought extinct for fifty years, in a remote valley in the Murchison Mountains across the water, one of the great wildlife stories of New Zealand.
Read the complete Te Anau write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Milford Road point 1 sits at 0 km, early in the day. Next is Milford Road point 2.
2. Milford Road point 2
In the middle of the Milford Road the world becomes a valley of beech trees. The air is clean and cool, and the light is soft, especially early in the morning, when mist hangs between the trees.
Read the complete Milford Road point 2 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Milford Road point 2 comes up 24 km in. Next is Milford Road point 3.
3. Milford Road point 3
The valley here is still the Eglinton, but with each kilometre the mountains grow closer and darker. The road runs along the river, which tumbles over gravel beds in braided channels, and the forest gives way in places to wide open flats of golden tussock, where deer graze at dusk. The peaks on either side are streaked with snow for much of the year, and on a clear day their reflections shimmer in the ponds and pools beside the road.
Read the complete Milford Road point 3 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
At least 59 km in you reach Milford Road point 3. Next is Milford Road point 4.
4. Milford Road point 4
The Divide is the low point in the mountains where the road finally gets over, and it is more modest than the name suggests. At about 530 metres above sea level, the saddle is the lowest pass across the Southern Alps, and it marks the watershed between rivers flowing east and those flowing west to the fiords. A small car park here is the trailhead for the Routeburn, Greenstone and Key Summit tracks, and it is full of hikers with boots and packs, drinking tea from flasks.
Read the complete Milford Road point 4 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Milford Road point 4, late in the day. Next is Milford Road point 5.
5. Milford Road point 5
At the end of the Milford Road the mountains seem to stand straight up out of the sea. The road emerges from the Homer Tunnel, a rough, unlit passage about 1.2 kilometres long, cut through solid granite and opened in 1953 after construction that began in the 1930s with picks, shovels and wheelbarrows. The tunnel drops steeply on the far side, and the road descends in a series of hairpins down the valley of the Cleddau River toward the sound.
Read the complete Milford Road point 5 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Milford Road point 5 sits at 126 km, late in the day.