February 12, 2026
Today was a rest day in Te Anau. We were both exhausted from the past few days of non-stop go on the Milford Track where we had to follow the group schedule and had little free time. Heinrich had developed a couple of blisters on his feet during the last couple of miles on the track, so we did not want to do anything to aggravate it. Tomorrow starts another round of get up and get going early with a few short hikes scheduled on tours of the Dunedin area: yet another reason to take it easy today.
Weather-wise, it was a very nice day: mostly clear in the morning, and more clouds in the afternoon. Temperature was in the low 70's, a bit humid but otherwise pleasant.
We enjoyed the luxury of sleeping in and then cooked an egg and potato breakfast. In the afternoon we took a short drive to the Te Anau Lake control structure, where the water from Lake Te Anau empties into the Waiau River. This is also an access point for the Kepler Track, another one of the great walks in New Zealand.
Heinrich found a bench with a nice view of the lake to rest his feet, and I took a short hike on the Kepler Track on the section that followed the Waiau River. The forest along the trail was different from what we had seen on the Milford Track. It was still lush with moss and ferns, but there was not as much undergrowth.
We returned to where we had parked the car, and I took another short walk to a bike trail access on the other side of the Waiau River. I found a good spot to view the river and the control structure in the distance.
Afterwards we stopped briefly at the Fiordlands National Park Visitor Centre to look around.
We drove back to the room and used the outside grill again for dinner. We had pork noisettes, rice and apple sauce. Delicious!
