Te Anau Post & Pictures

The town of Te Anau is a 2 hour drive from Queenstown.  The road from Queenstown to Te Anau curves along the Remarkables mountain range (only range in the world besides Rockies that point due north, said the bus driver) .

Te Anau is small town of 5000 people, and the main jumping off point for the Fiordland National Park. The area east of Te Anau is fiords and many different great walks such as the Keplar, Routeburn, and Milford and Doubtful sound tours are accessed by crossing lake Te Anau to reach the trail heads.

A view of the Te Anau waterfront.

A Kea. Having a nap before he is ready to tear apart some trampers unlucky backpacks.

Lake Te Anau with Fiordland National Park in the background. 

It is another beautiful town, situated on Lake Te Anau, and is quiet similar to Wanaka. These towns have all setup great walking paths and beaches along the water front as the communities are very outdoors oriented. The maintenance of the beaches and walkways also make great spots for tourists, as there are always many backpacker vans and cars parked at these spots with people enjoying the beach or laid out on the grass. Many people have their towels and laundry spread out across their campers to dry, which looks funny as these travelers are using every bit of space they have to travel.

 When we had first decided to travel New Zealand we considered renting a camper van rather than buying a ticket on the Magic Bus. We were really not sure how well the camper van setup would work logistically travelling through the country. We have now realized that every 5^th vehicle on the road is a car people are sleeping in, mid-sized camper van or full sized camper trailers. All of the different rental companies have their logo on the vehicles which makes it very clear which are the rentals and from which company.

We spent a day here before and after the kayak trip in Doubtful Sound. We soon realized that we have been in this country too long as we have started to overlap with people we have met from other areas and trips in New Zealand. One guy stayed in the same hut as us on the Tongariro Northern circuit, was one of eight people that were on our kayak trip. He was very helpful providing us with information for travel in India and Nepal as he has been travelling the world for two years.  Many of the people we have talked to about travelling are all travelling between 3 months and 3 years around the world. It is great talking to other people as they have insight as to what to expect from different places as well as the easiest way to complete a trip we want to do with the least amount of hassle.

As a side note he said he had previously worked for Comedy Central and got to know many of the TV personalities. I asked him if he knew Dave Chappelle, but he said Dave had left just before he started there, which I found disappointing.

On our second day in Te Anau we had the opportunity to visit a wildlife conservation park that is run by the Department of Conservation.  We saw keas (these really large birds, which are known for stealing your gear while camping!!) alpine parrots and wekas (another New Zealand bird, but these you see on beaches and in the forest—they are becoming quite tamed, so that they will try and sneak on tour buses to steal food!; there is a picture of Steve posted with a weka on a beach in Abel Tasman).   It was really nice to see the work they are doing to protect and help these birds, ensuring that future generations can enjoy them as much as we have.  As we walked back through the forest to our hostel, you hear lots and lots of rustling in the forest—the thing with New Zealand is, you always know that it’s a bird in the forest, because they don’t have the same small animals, like chipmunks or squirrels, like we do.