The second right leaves the SH6 and joins the SH94 which weaves its way through the pastoral areas of the Southlands region to Te Anau, the gateway to the formidable Fiorland National Park.
Before taking the third right, I call at the Information Centre in Te Anau to see if the road ahead is open yet. It is not. There is a chance it will be opening for a few hours, so I take a chance and start the 119km drive to where the road is closed...
Despite being pressed for time, I cannot help but take the time to stop and experience this majestic landscape. The road meanders through rolling farmland and then into the textbook U-shape of Eglington Valley. The scenery some how knows to become wilder and more rugged as the road crosses the boundary of the Fiorland National Park. From the Divide, the lowest east-west pass in the Southern Alps, the road falls into the beech forest of the Hollyford Valley. Shortly after the impressive Pop's View, I join the back of a long queue of vehicles waiting for the road to open.
The vehicles slowly shuffle forward as, one by one, folk turn around in this Mexican standoff with the red traffic light. Personally, I sit patiently and watching the line of shadows float up the steep valley walls.
With all the urgency and frenzy of a F1 starting grid, the line zooms off before anyone from the Traffic Agency can change their minds. The road climbs between many avalanche prone slopes of gigantic lumps of rock to a spectacular, high-walled amphitheatre, pierced only by the Homer Tunnel.
On the orders of the World's most Alpine set of traffic lights, I begin my voyage through the dark, rough and narrow tunnel. The alarmingly steep descent along the 1270m long tunnel feels like a journey to the centre of the Earth, but emerges at the head of the spectacular Cleddan Valley. I have run out of superlatives to describe the unique beauty of this place. Wow. Just, wow.
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