February 12, 2019
I did not have much scheduled for today, so we slept in and did not leave the room until 8:30. It felt good not to rush around. The morning was mostly cloudy, and the weather was predicted to be partly cloudy in Te Anau and at Manapouri where we were headed (a 40-minute drive). Overnight it had rained hard. Maybe it helped the waterfalls in Milford Sound.
Morning View of Lake Te Anau From Our Room
Instead we decided to drive back to the Te Anau bird sanctuary where the birds were scheduled to be fed at 9:30. The naturalist was very knowledgeable and gave an interesting talk on the history of the takahē birds and efforts to increase their population. These birds have been victims of the stoats that were introduced to New Zealand in order to control the rabbits (which were also introduced). The stoats preferred eating the bird eggs and chicks to the rabbits, which drove the takahē and some other native bird species to near extinction.
We got to spend about 20 minutes inside the takahē enclosure, and then we watched the naturalist feed the ducks and some of the other birds. She gave us food to feed the ducks, and they pecked it right out of my hand.
Afterwards we drove into the town of Te Anau to fill up on gas, and we bought a few groceries at the Fresh Choice market.
Since it was only a half hour drive to Manapouri where we were staying for the night, I thought it would be fun to scout out some Lord of the Rings film locations that were along the way. We stopped at the Rainbow Reach car park that accessed the Kepler Track. We walked over to the swinging bridge at the beginning of the trail and admired the view over the Waiau River. About 1 km from the car park was where the opening aerial shot for the Fellowship of the Ring was filmed: the River Anduin. We drove up the road from the car park and found a spot to pull over next to the location. It was a very short walk to the bank of the Waiau River where the shot was taken.
Back on the main road there was another film location only a few km away: the Dead Marshes scene. This is where Gollum guides Frodo and Sam through a swamp and saves Frodo when he falls under the spell of the dead people within it. Someone put a rock cairn at the edge of the road and an arrow to mark the spot. It was dry season, so there was not much water in the swamp and the area was overgrown. I walked as far as possible without getting my feet wet in the mushy ground. According to the GPS coordinates I got to within 150 feet of where the scene was filmed.
After that bit of fun we drove to the town of Manapouri. It was still too early to check into our hotel room, so we drove to find the car park where the Doubtful Sound cruise was leaving the following day. Then we drove to the Frasers Beach car park, found a picnic table and had lunch. We walked down to the lake and snapped some photos. The weather was still mostly cloudy, but it was warm.
We checked into our room at the Manapouri Lakeview Motor Inn. The room had a small refrigerator and private bath, and there was a nice view of the lake. There was a shared kitchen on the property where we used the microwave to make baked potatoes for dinner. We also had a chef salad with chicken, carrots and tomatoes.
We relaxed for the remainder of the evening.