New Zealand State Highway 94 - Driving State Highway 94

Driving State Highway 94

See also: Transport in Milford Sound

Tourists to Milford Sound arrive mainly via coach over the length of SH 94 from Mossburn, a predominantly high mountain road which is prone to avalanches in winter. The road was only opened in 1953, after the Homer Tunnel was finished, after almost 20 years of intermittent work. The road is one of the more dangerous public roads in New Zealand, with injury crash rates around 65% higher than the rest of New Zealand's network, and a fatality crash rate of almost twice average (per vehicle kilometre travelled), making it the third most dangerous section of New Zealand's State Highway network (as of 2008). Stopping is prohibited on long stretches due to rock or snow avalanche dangers, and the road is often closed in winter, with the carrying of snow chains mandatory during snow conditions. Helicopters are used during winter to drop explosives onto snow buildup zones above the road in order to cause controlled avalanches. However this does not eliminate the danger that road traffic may be hit by an uncontrolled event, especially in the area of the Homer Tunnel portals.

There are no petrol stations on the length of the road from Te Anau to Milford Sound, meaning that vehicles need to take enough fuel for a return trip. All of this does not discourage up to 50 coaches and hundreds of private cars daily from making the 546 km trip from the nearest city Invercargill, and the 572 km trip from popular tourist destination Queenstown. Almost 60% of tourists travel via coach, which is regarded as being safer than attempting the road on your own.

Read more about this topic:  New Zealand State Highway 94

Famous quotes containing the words driving, state and/or highway:

    “The Westerly Wind asserting his sway from the south-west quarter is often like a monarch gone mad, driving forth with wild imprecations the most faithful of his courtiers to shipwreck, disaster, and death.”
    —Joseph Conrad (1857–1924)

    “To reduce the imagination to a state of slavery—even though it would mean the elimination of what is commonly called happiness—is to betray all sense of absolute justice within oneself. Imagination alone offers me some intimation of what can be.”
    —André Breton (1896–1966)

    “The most excellent and divine counsel, the best and most profitable advertisement of all others, but the least practised, is to study and learn how to know ourselves. This is the foundation of wisdom and the highway to whatever is good.... God, Nature, the wise, the world, preach man, exhort him both by word and deed to the study of himself.”
    —Pierre Charron (1541–1603)