Giveaways
MANY people have heard of Milford Sound, officially Milford Sound/Piopiotahi, the supposed eighth wonder of the world, located in Fiordland National Park, itself part of Te Wāhipounamu, the South West New Zealand World Heritage Area.
And of the Milford Track, which runs from Lake Te Anau to Milford Sound.
Less well known is the Milford Road, which runs from the town of Te Anau to Milford Sound and which has many scenic attractions, campsites, and side trips, in its own right.
At Te Anau, where the journey begins, there is a noteworthy bird sanctuary, the Punanga Manu o Te Anau, where my friend Chris filmed some Takahē this February.
Te Anau is also a great place to recharge your batteries, go shopping, maybe catch a boat ride to the wild western shores of the lake, set out for the Kepler Track, or just grab a pie made the old-fashioned way.
Along the Milford Road, there is another world awaiting you. It runs along the lakeshore for some 30 km at first, past Lake Mistletoe, to Te Anau Downs, where the ferries set out for the start of the Milford Track.
Thereafter, according to the government website 100% Pure New Zealand, as of the time of writing (6 March 2025),
The first major highlight is the Eglinton Valley, which was once filled with glacier ice. The valley has steep rock sides and a flat, golden tussock floor — it’s a surreal place. Further along the road are the Mirror Lakes — on a still day they display a perfect reflection of the Earl Mountains. Then you’ll come to the Avenue of the Disappearing Mountain, where an optical illusion causes the approaching mountain to get smaller rather than larger. When you reach Lake Gunn, stretch your legs on the nature walk — an easy 45 minute loop track.
The Homer Tunnel signals your descent to Milford Sound. This tunnel, which is hewed from solid granite, took nearly 20 years to complete. From mouth to mouth it measures 1270 metres. Before you reach Milford, get some fresh air on the 20 minute walk that leads to The Chasm — a spectacular waterfall where the Cleddau River has scoured its way through solid rock.
The same webpage adds that the Milford Road is a winding mountain road and takes much longer to drive along than you might think. East of the Divide — that is to say, the main divide of the Southern Alps — the road follows the course of the Eglinton River and its headwater lakes Lochie, Fergus, and Gunn. To the west, it drops into the valley of the Hollyford River / Whakatipu kā Tuka.
And, once through the Homer Tunnel, into the spectacular, vertical-sided Cleddau Valley on the way to Milford.
Here’s a slightly comical photo that I took on an earlier trip, in 2020. I don’t know whether this is still a highlight of the Homer Tunnel’s year.
All of these valleys were carved by ice.
Nonetheless, the landscape gets progressively more rugged as you go along the Milford Road, from scenic in the Eglinton Valley, where the bottom has long since been filled up by shingle —
— to epic at the Cleddau Valley and Milford Sound / Piopiotahi end.
There are campsites all along the road, most of them fairly basic and run by the New Zealand Department of Conservation (DOC), apart from the privately run Eglinton Valley Camp, which has more facilities but is also a bit more expensive, especially for its cabins (the other ones don’t have cabins).
The Eglinton Valley Camp is a good place to be based as, quite apart from its amenities, it is roughly halfway along the road, which is otherwise a fairly long drive. But, as of the time of writing, it doesn’t yet have wifi.
One must-see beauty spot right next to the road, a few kilometres before the Eglinton Valley Camp if you are coming from Te Anau, is the Mirror Lakes Walk.
Further along, past the Eglinton Valley Camp, you get to beautiful Lake Gunn, which you can gaze on from a lookout on the road. The lake is also accessible via short the Lake Gunn Nature Walk, next to the Cascade Creek Campsite.
Past the Divide, where the western end of the Routeburn Track also begins, you eventually get to Monkey Creek. This is a popular stop-off for tourist buses, as there is a big carpark and usually some kea hanging around, though of course you aren’t supposed to feed them. Indeed, there are lots of signs in the whole Milford/Te Anau area advising people not to feed the kea.
Further on, past the Homer Tunnel and into the Cleddau Valley, you get to the Chasm, a deep eroded crack in the rock through which the Cleddau River flows. It’s a bit like the notorious Strid on the River Wharfe in Yorkshire, except that it looks as though the Chasm only fills up to the top during floods, whereas the Strid is full or nearly full all the time.
In the carpark, Chris noticed bellbirds, or korimako, in the trees, unusually close up, and filmed them as well.
Day walks along the Milford Road include the whole or part of the following tracks and routes, some more difficult than others:
· Boyd Creek Track and Walk, famous for an abundance of moss. Gets difficult if you go far.
· East Eglinton Track (“challenging”)
· Dore Pass Route (“challenging”)
· Hut Creek Track (“difficult”)
· Mistake Creek Track (“difficult”)
· Lake Gunn Nature Walk (already mentioned above)
· Key Summit (via a section of the Routeburn Track)
· Lake Marian Track (from a couple of km up the Hollyford Road)
· Gertrude Valley Track, which is followed by a more difficult route to the GertrudeSaddle
· The Chasm (also mentioned above)
· Grave-Talbot Track, which can be shortened to a stroll on the Gulliver River
Some of these day walks are among the most beautiful in New Zealand, notably Lake Marian, the Gertrude Valley, and Key Summit. Here are some photos of those three hikes, respectively.
Here’s a short video of Lake Marian and of Mount Christina, behind the lake.
And as I also foreshadowed above, you can begin the Routeburn Track at its Divide end, to come out at the head of Lake Wakatipu.
Here is a video I filmed of scenes all along the way in September 2022, from the bird sanctuary at Te Anau all the way through to Milford Sound/Piopiotahi by way of the Eglinton Valley, Lake Gunn, a hike up to the scenic Key Summit on the Routeburn Track, the Gertrude Saddle (which I have another blog post about) and finally the world-famous sound itself.
At the end of that video, I talk about the removal of the airport and possible restriction of the number of cars that could be driven to Milford Sound each day, especially by tourists who might forget that they are supposed to drive on the left. All this was something that was being mooted at the time, the alternative being a system of shuttles instead, but so far nothing much has come of it.
If you liked the post above, check out my book about the South Island! It’s available for purchase from my website a-maverick.com.
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