Packing Checklist — Milford Road & Southern Lakes Driving Route | The Stable

The Milford Road — State Highway 94 from Te Anau to Milford Sound — is widely regarded as one of the most beautiful drives on Earth. But the journey begins well before Te Anau, in the adventure capital of Queenstown, and the route we have curated takes in the full sweep of New Zealand's Southern Lakes and Fiordland regions.; From Queenstown, the drive follows the shores of Lake Wakatipu to the pastoral beauty of the Southland plains, then into Te Anau — the gateway to Fiordland. The Milford Road itself is a 120-kilometre masterpiece of engineering and nature: mirror lakes, ancient beech forests, the dramatic Homer Tunnel carved through solid rock, and the final descent into Milford Sound — where Mitre Peak rises 1,692 metres directly from the water.; This is a landscape of superlatives. Fiordland receives up to 8 metres of rain per year, creating thousands of temporary waterfalls that cascade down sheer granite walls. On a clear day, the reflections in the mirror lakes are flawless. On a rainy day, the waterfalls multiply into the hundreds. Either way, it is unforgettable.