rom Te Anau to Milford Sound State Highway 94 first takes you along the shores of the lake, then through the Eglinton Valley tussocklands set among beech forest. Further on are the Mirror Lakes, with a superb view up Mistake Creek to Mt Ngatimamoe. This mountain was named for one of the South Island's earliest tribes who were later displaced by the invading Ngati Tahu. Survivors fled into the wilderness of Fiordland and this flight has led to many fanciful stories of their survival here as a 'lost tribe'.

After the Mirror Lakes the road passes Cascade Creek and then Lake Gunn, a beautiful small lake set among bush and framed by the western mountains. The road then climbs the Divide and from there stretching northward is the Hollyford Valley, one of the most beautiful in New Zealand and the setting for one of Fiordland’s justifiably famous walks.

From here the road then descends steeply to the west, offering tremendous views of the peaks and precipices of the upper Hollyford Valley, dominated by the 2502-metre peak of Mt Christina. It continues westward up the Upper Hollyford to the Homer Tunnel, emerging into the bush of the Cleddau Valley and then follows the river down to Milford Sound.

Milford Sound offers the best fiord scenery in the Southern Hemisphere, and there is not much in the Northern Hemisphere to rival it. A boat trip around the fiord will enable you to take in the best of the other natural features of Milford Sound: the snow-capped heights of Mt Pembroke; the Bowen Falls cascading from their high hanging valley; and the Lion dropping sheer-sided into the fiord depths. Superb views of Mitre Peak can be had from the head of the fiord, and fur seals are often to be spotted sun-basking on the rocks. Also found here are the little blue penguin and the Fiordland crested penguin whose colourful crown of yellow head-feathers, combined with bright reddish-brown eyes, have earned it the sobriquet the 'punk-rocker' of the penguin world.

Running into Milford Sound is the Sinbad Valley and until only a few years ago this was home to the last kakapo to survive on the mainland.

A fair bit of publicity was given to Don Merton’s efforts to obtain from the government the $30,000 necessary to catch the two remaining birds and move them to safety, but this was to be in vain - by the time the money had been raised, the birds had gone.

Piopiotahi in Milford Sound is the source of a soft, translucent stone known as tangiwai, which was prized, like greenstone, by the Maori for use in ornaments and they journeyed here from considerable distances to gather it. The name Piopiotahi means 'one piopio' and is yet another poignant reminder of our lost birds.

There are other points of note for the naturalist in Milford Sound. The white-eye (also known as the silver-eye or wax-eye) was first noticed here in 1832, presumably not long after it arrived from Australia, and from here it began its northern spread. By 1856 it had become established in Canterbury and Nelson; by 1863 it had reached Wanganui; in 1865 it was observed in Auckland and then in the Bay of Islands in 1867.