Milford Road Drive - not for the faint hearted

Please don’t be as crazy as I once was and drive down this road in the dark in the middle of a prolonged rain deluge. It’s especially scary - especially when all you can hear is the roar of waterfalls crashing down from the steep granite cliffs sitting just beside the road. It’s also not the time to take a drive through the Homer Tunnel. Famous for appearing as though it’s been left unfinished, the Homer Tunnel, has room for one line of traffic only and drips constantly from the porous mountains above. It looks what it is, a tunnel chiselled out of the rock through the mountain and its particularly spooky full of foggy mist on a dark wet morning - ah fond memories, not!

Entrance to Homer Tunnel on the Milford Road

The Milford Road is one if not the most scenic drive in the world. It is majestic and wonderous if you can actually see it and incredibly dangerous if you can’t. It also has some awe-inspiring sights to stop off at, from Mirror Lakes to Lake Gunn, through to Eglington Valley - all of which are breathtaking spectacular and all of which I’ll write about in another article soon.

Lake Gum, Milford Road in brighter weather conditions

I’ll also write about my night stopping over at Milford Sound and how much fun that was. This article though is about my crazy trip in the dark to reach Milford Sound before dawn. Crazy, stupid, daft are all words applicable now I look back, but at the time it seemed the perfect scenario - stay over at Te Anau (another article folks - a truly great sport to spend a day, a weekend or even a week) and drive to Milford early morning. Well, it would have been if it hadn’t been raining for over 24 hours before - and not just any rain, torrential rain. I set off nervous, by the time I reached Homer Tunnel I was positively petrified. Having seen only one other vehicle, a camper van heading to the start of the Routeburn Track, I was convinced the road could have collapsed at any point. Each bend I gripped tighter to the steering wheel praying the road ahead was still there. Trust me, when you drive Milford, you will realise exactly what I am meaning, the road is so extreme you feel it can fall away at any point. And honestly, I never expected it to be so dark or stay so dark or the damn sunrise to take so long!!!

One of the many valleys along the Milford Road

Luckily for me as dawn rose and I approached Milford Sound I could breathe again as I’d made it safely there - somehow - and this article is to emphasis don’t be a fool like I was - don’t drive the Milford Road in the dark. My reason for my foolhardily was a Sunrise Kayak on Milford Sound which meant arriving before dawn and yes, that white knuckle ride did truly end up being worth it - watch this space.