Located on the fringes of Fiordland National Park in the remote southwest of the South Island, Te Anau is the gateway to the famed Milford Track and other notable walks. It lies on the eastern shore of New Zealand’s second largest lake, Lake Te Anau, and has a good tourist infrastructure for such a remote town as well as fine views in every direction.
Most people arrive here from Queenstown or Invercargill to walk the Milford, Routeburn, Kepler and Holyford tracks, or on a day tour from either city. As well as the geological attractions of Milford and Doubtful sounds are Te Anau’s glow-worm caves and several species of rare bird life, including the endangered Takahe seen at Te Anau Wildlife Centre.
Milford Sound is the most famous of all the sounds in the Fiordland region of New Zealand and one of the world’s truly remarkable areas. The chunk of mile-high granite known as Mitre Peak juts vertically out of the sound and boat tours get visitors right up under it, while the Milford Track takes walkers on a 30-mile adventure past unbelievably beautiful scenery including towering peaks, glaciated valleys and thundering waterfalls, of which the Sutherland Falls are New Zealand’s highest.
Doubtful Sound is the other main draw to Te Anau and happens to be 10 times the size of Milford, yet its remoteness and inaccessibility make it less visited. Kayak tours can be done of the sound, and its vastness makes it all the more intriguing for some visitors.
Beautiful Lake Manapouri is another major attraction in the Te Anau area and its huge hydro-electric power station, New Zealand’s largest feat of engineering, makes a for a suitable family daytrip destination. The glow-worm caves offer another interesting day out. Located across Lake Te Anau and accessible by boat, visitors are taken into the glow-worm grotto by small punt where thousands of larvae in search of food light up the cave.
If you fancy a game of golf, Te Anau has its very own 18-hole course where views of the lake and mountains are outstanding and prices and facilities good. You can even get to the golf course, which is just a couple of miles to the south of town, by helicopter. There are also interesting parks in town, one of which, the Te Anau Wildlife Centre, has the rare Takahe bird, while the visitor centre has a small museum dedicated to the early Maori and European settlers of Te Anau and Fiordland.
The town of Te Anau itself has grown up immensely of late. It has all necessary facilities for long and short stays, including banks, shopping centres, car and bike rentals, and a full range of accommodation. There is some excellent shopping to be had and its multitude of cafés is being joined by fine restaurants with impressive menus and award-winning New Zealand wines.
Te Anau has a good range of accommodation with close to 4,000 beds in lodges, hotels, resorts, and motels. The predominant choice of accommodation in Te Anau is aimed at tourists who are in-transit to the Milford and other tracks, and who typically just stay a night or two. There are, however, boutique resorts and other flashy hotels that draw in well-heeled travellers by the score. Surrounding home and farm stays are other options for an authentic New Zealand experience.
Even with the huge choice of accommodation in Te Anau, it gets busy in the main summer season from December to March and booking ahead is recommended.
Te Anau is best visited by road from either Queenstown or Invercargill, lying north and south respectively, and is two or three hours drive from either city. Buses and various tour operators run here throughout the day, while hiring a car and going at it alone is also straightforward. It is also possible to fly to Te Anau with nearby Manapouri Airport receiving flights from the likes of Christchurch and Queenstown with Mount Cook Airline, Ansett NZ Airlines, and Air Fiordland.
The history of Fiordland is an intriguing one, and an amalgamation of Maori legend and early European discoverers. Te Anau itself has mainly built up as a launch point for the Milford Track and other tracks in the region.
The Tu-te-raki-whanoa Demi-god carved out the fiords with his adze Te Hamo, according to Maori legend, to form the extraordinary landscapes we see today. In reality, immense glaciated action over hundreds of thousands of years carved out the spectacular fiords and an intense amount of rain paved the way for dense vegetation to take root.
Not many Maori ventured into this area, apart from those who established the early Milford Track to gather the greenstone known as pounamu. They used the hard jade rock to carve jewellery and weaponry. Other well-worn trails were also set up to link the many Maori food-gathering camps.
European history began, as with much of the rest of New Zealand, with the arrival of Captain Cook aboard the Endeavour. He sailed into the Fiordland region in 1773 and spent more than a month in Dusky Sound checking out the local wildlife and drawing maps. It was from his accounts of the abundance of seals in the region which led early whalers and sealers to the south coast.
Cook didn’t actually venture into what was to become New Zealand’s foremost natural attraction, Milford Sound. That honour is bestowed upon John Grono, one of the first sealers, who named the now famous fiord after Milford Haven in Wales.
The mid-1800s was a busy time for Fiordland when explorers, surveyors, and prospectors penetrated its remoteness. Donald Sutherland was the first white man to settle in Milford Sound, and the massive Sutherland Falls (New Zealand’s highest) are named after him. He built several houses in the area and his wife’s ghost is said to stalk Bridal Falls.
The Milford Track is actually an old Maori greenstone trail which was rediscovered sometime in the 19th century by Quinton MacKinnon, a Lake Te Anau recluse. A known drunk, MacKinnon disappeared and his boat turned up half submerged.
Tourism quickly grew in the 20th century after the jet-age really opened up the South Island and the once Maori greenstone trail of Milford Sound became the Milford Track, ‘the world’s finest walk’.
Te Anau has a cool, temperate climate with the best weather for sightseeing and walking being in the summer between November and February. The coldest and wettest months are from May to August. However, rainfall is lower in Te Anau than elsewhere in Fiordland due to the effects of the surrounding mountains.
You can visit Te Anau at any time of year although the main attraction is the nearby walks, namely the Milford Track, and this remains fairly inaccessible after May due to heavy snowfall over its passes.
Average temperatures in Te Anau are: 12°C in the spring (September to October), with fresh mornings and warm days; 25°C in the summer (November to February), hot days and warm nights; 20°C in autumn (March and April), balmy days and cooler nights; and 7°C in the winter (May to August), bracing days and cold nights.
For those who hire cars, beware of the Milford road around winter time when avalanches regularly cause havoc across parts of the route. The Milford road is constantly monitored for its avalanches, and is closed for driver safety if conditions get too rough.
This hotel was just on the outskirts of a very small downtown, so it was easily accessible with our rented car (about 2 minutes from hotel to dowtown center). It was right off the main road coming dir...
