State Highway 94 from Te Anau to Milford Sound is consistently ranked among the world's most scenic drives. It climbs through beech forest and tussock valleys, passes mirror-still lakes reflecting sheer mountains, punches through the hand-carved Homer Tunnel, and descends to Milford Sound — Rudyard Kipling's "eighth wonder of the world."

Stops on This Tour (9)

1. 1
   Te Anau Lakefront The gateway town to Fiordland — the southern shore of Lake Te Anau, New Zealand's second-largest lake, with the Murchison Mountains rising across water so still it looks like glass
2. 2
   Te Anau Downs The launch point for the Milford Track — the only way to reach the start of the 53km "finest walk in the world" is by boat across the head of Lake Te Anau from this quiet jetty
3. 3
   Eglinton Valley A wide, U-shaped glacial valley where beech forest opens into golden tussock flats — kea (alpine parrots) are often spotted here, and the road runs arrow-straight through the valley floor
4. 4
   Mirror Lakes A five-minute boardwalk to a small lake that reflects the Earl Mountains so perfectly that a famously upside-down sign reads "Mirror Lakes" — only readable in the reflection
5. 5
   Lake Gunn Nature Walk A 45-minute loop through ancient, moss-draped red beech forest — the trees here are 500 years old, their trunks carpeted in ferns, and the silence is total
6. 6
   The Divide The lowest east-west pass in the Southern Alps at 534 metres — the starting point for the Routeburn and Greenstone-Caples tracks, two of New Zealand's Great Walks
7. 7
   Homer Tunnel (Eastern Portal) An unlined, hand-carved 1.2km tunnel blasted through solid granite over 19 years (1935-1954) — the single-lane tunnel drops 1-in-10 and is lit with an eerie orange glow
8. 8
   The Chasm A short walk to a narrow gorge where the Cleddau River has carved bizarre sculptures from solid rock — natural bridges, perfectly circular potholes, and water that disappears into a slot canyon
9. 9
   Milford Sound (Piopiotahi) The fiord itself — Mitre Peak rising 1,692 metres straight from the water, permanent waterfalls cascading from hanging valleys, and bottlenose dolphins in the dark water below

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