diff --git a/deploy/environments/dev/kind/gateway.yaml b/deploy/environments/dev/kind/gateway.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..bf85e8269
--- /dev/null
+++ b/deploy/environments/dev/kind/gateway.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1
+kind: Gateway
+metadata:
+  name: inference-gateway
+  annotations:
+    networking.istio.io/service-type: NodePort
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/deploy/environments/dev/kind/kustomization.yaml b/deploy/environments/dev/kind/kustomization.yaml
index 57fa4b319..34d2a8210 100644
--- a/deploy/environments/dev/kind/kustomization.yaml
+++ b/deploy/environments/dev/kind/kustomization.yaml
@@ -13,6 +13,10 @@ apiVersion: kustomize.config.k8s.io/v1beta1
 kind: Kustomization
 
 resources:
+- services.yaml
 - ../../../components/istio-control-plane/
 - ../../../components/vllm-sim/
 - ../../../components/inference-gateway/
+
+patches:
+- path: gateway.yaml
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/deploy/environments/dev/kind/services.yaml b/deploy/environments/dev/kind/services.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..853bfcca0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/deploy/environments/dev/kind/services.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+apiVersion: v1
+kind: Service
+metadata:
+  annotations:
+    networking.istio.io/service-type: NodePort
+  labels:
+    gateway.istio.io/managed: istio.io-gateway-controller
+    gateway.networking.k8s.io/gateway-name: inference-gateway
+    istio.io/enable-inference-extproc: "true"
+  name: inference-gateway-istio
+  namespace: default
+spec:
+  type: NodePort
+  selector:
+    gateway.networking.k8s.io/gateway-name: inference-gateway
+  ports:
+  - appProtocol: tcp
+    name: status-port
+    port: 15021
+    protocol: TCP
+    targetPort: 15021
+    nodePort: 32021
+  - appProtocol: http
+    name: default
+    port: 80
+    protocol: TCP
+    targetPort: 80
+    nodePort: 30080
diff --git a/scripts/kind-dev-env.sh b/scripts/kind-dev-env.sh
index 3cad7fbad..89eb11195 100755
--- a/scripts/kind-dev-env.sh
+++ b/scripts/kind-dev-env.sh
@@ -22,6 +22,9 @@ SCRIPT_DIR="$(cd "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")" && pwd)"
 # Set the namespace to deploy the Gateway stack to
 : "${PROJECT_NAMESPACE:=default}"
 
+# Set the host port to map to the Gateway's inbound port (30080)
+: "${GATEWAY_HOST_PORT:=30080}"
+
 # ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # Setup & Requirement Checks
 # ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
@@ -63,7 +66,16 @@ done
 if kind get clusters 2>/dev/null | grep -q "^${CLUSTER_NAME}$"; then
     echo "Cluster '${CLUSTER_NAME}' already exists, re-using"
 else
-    kind create cluster --name "${CLUSTER_NAME}"
+    kind create cluster --name "${CLUSTER_NAME}" --config - << EOF
+kind: Cluster
+apiVersion: kind.x-k8s.io/v1alpha4
+nodes:
+- role: control-plane
+  extraPortMappings:
+  - containerPort: 30080
+    hostPort: ${GATEWAY_HOST_PORT}
+    protocol: TCP
+EOF
 fi
 
 # Set the kubectl context to the kind cluster
@@ -126,13 +138,9 @@ You can watch the Endpoint Picker logs with:
 
   $ kubectl --context ${KUBE_CONTEXT} logs -f deployments/endpoint-picker
 
-You can use a port-forward to access the Gateway:
-
-  $ kubectl --context ${KUBE_CONTEXT} port-forward service/inference-gateway-istio 8080:80
-
 With that running in the background, you can make requests:
 
-  $ curl -s -w '\n' http://localhost:8080/v1/completions -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '{"model":"food-review","prompt":"hi","max_tokens":10,"temperature":0}' | jq
+  $ curl -s -w '\n' http://localhost:${GATEWAY_HOST_PORT}/v1/completions -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '{"model":"food-review","prompt":"hi","max_tokens":10,"temperature":0}' | jq
 
 -----------------------------------------
 EOF