Landslides have closed both the Milford Road and Lower Hollyford Road after days of torrential rain.

Large avalanches landed on Milford Road (SH94) yesterday leaving significant debris on the zig-zags down from the Homer Tunnel, while a section of the Lower Hollyford Road has been completely washed out.

Fiordland was drenched by 114 millimetres of rain yesterday, according to the weather station at Milford Sound Airport, following 81mm on Friday and 108mm on Thursday. Saturday was relatively fine.

Kevin Thompson, Waka Kotahi Manager for the Milford Road Alliance, says the road and snow on the surrounding mountain slopes are being inspected from the air, to ensure workers can begin to clear the road safely.

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"State Highway 94 has been closed from the Hollyford Road to Milford Sound/Piopiotahi since last Thursday evening with snowfall affecting travel before that," he says.

"Currently we have large, natural avalanches occurring in a number of places. Given the low cloud and continuing rainfall, which is triggering avalanche material from high up the slopes, we cannot safely get crews in to clear the road yet.

"It's been a large storm cycle over the past week or so. At the weekend we started getting heavy, warm rainfall on to our avalanche 'start zones' which triggered avalanches covering the road in places. These take time and machinery to clear once it is safe to do so."

The road will remain closed today as the avalanche hazard is high and further snow is forecast overnight.

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A further assessment will happen at 4.30pm to determine an opening timeline.

"We appreciate that many of the businesses that operate in the Sound are inconvenienced by the current closure. We will clear the avalanche material and get the road reopened, possibly for convoys during daylight hours in the first instance, as soon as it is safe to do so."

Landslides block SH94 Milford Road down from the Homer Tunnel today

Lower Hollyford Road, which runs from SH94 at the Marion Corner turn-off to Humboldt Falls, is owned and managed by Southland District Council, but funded by Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency.

It is closed until further notice.

Both roads sustained major damage in February 2020's floods, when a storm dumped 1100mm on Fiordland over three days.

SH94 became impassable, leading to New Zealand’s largest aerial evacuation, with 500 people airlifted from Fiordland.

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Both roads were repaired by Waka Kotahi's Milford Road Alliance, at a cost of $9 million for Milford Road and about $2.3m for the Lower Hollyford Road.

MetService has a road snowfall warning for Milford Road (SH94) in place today, with 2-3cm of snow potentially settling above 700m.