Enjoy plants, animals and geology along the Milford Road and in Milford Sound/Piopiotahi. Read about nature and conservation in Milford Road/Milford Sound area.

Early Māori gathered greenstone here

There are two principal trails linking the Fiordland coast with the rest of Te Wai Pounamu (the South Island).

A sea route was the main route used by early Māori to transport the kokotakiwai (greenstone) to Murihiku (Southland). The inland route lay over what is now known as the Milford Track, over Omanui (McKinnon Pass), down the Waitawai (Clinton River) to the head of Te Ana-au (Lake Te Anau) then towards Te Ara a Kiwa (Foveaux Strait).

The Māori name for Milford Sound is Piopiotahi, after the native thrush - piopio - now probably extinct.

Permanent Māori settlements were located in the Hollyford Valley and around lakes Manapouri and Te Anau, linked by well-worn routes through territory rich with eels and forest resources.

The first European settlers, explorers and tourism

Milford Sound was named by a Welsh sealing captain John Grono after his birth place, Milford Haven.

Donald Sutherland, a Scottish sealer, soldier and gold prospector, was the first European resident. When he saw Milford Sound for the first time, he declared, “If ever I come to anchor it will be here.” He kept his word and in 1878 built three thatched huts, which he called the City of Milford. A fiord and waterfall are named after him.

A dozen years later, the Milford Track was cut between Te Anau and Milford by Sutherland and Quintin Mackinnon, establishing a land link with the interior and a tourist route. Sutherland’s wife Elizabeth opened a boarding house for “asphalters” - cityfolk who came to enjoy Fiordland’s grandeur.

In 1889 William Homer discovered the saddle now named after him. The section of road from Te Anau to the Divide was completed by government work scheme gangs in the 1930s. Work on the Homer Tunnel began in 1935 but difficult conditions and interruption by the Second World War delayed its completion until 1954.