Te Anau Day 163 28/02/2015

It rained heavily in the night and was still raining when we woke. We packed up and drove round to the other campsite in Queenstown to access the wifi before driving south west to Te Anau. The road takes you along the shores of Lake Wakatipu. Maori tradition believes the lake is shaped like an evil sleeping giant with his knees drawn up. It's huge with over 200km of shoreline and reaches a depth of over 320m. It apparently contains the second purest lake water in the world but is very cold at an average temperature of 10 degrees which results in certain restrictions if you want to go out on the water to help prevent accidents. From the south end of the lake the road continues through the arid Eyre Mountains before turning west to head to Te Anau. We checked in at the campsite, had lunch and did some chores before heading into the town. It's set beside Lake Te Anau and is very peaceful despite being the main gateway to Fiordland including the very popular Milford Sound. The lake is New Zealand's second largest and is twice the depth of Loch Ness at 417m. Back at the campsite we watched several groups of backpackers arrive. The town is the start/finish to a number of long distance walks in the area. We had contemplated doing one or more of these however, despite most having huts for overnight stays, they don't have any bedding or cooking utensils which would mean we'd either have to hire or borrow starting to make the trips quite expensive when you add in the hut fees (they are however significantly more luxurious than Scottish bothies!). We were being picked up at 6.15am tomorrow so, after getting our gear ready, headed to bed for an early night.

Lake Te Anau