Lakefront Lodge Te Anau

I'm excited to be off on my own for a while. The constant planes, buses, trains and boats kept me propelled on someone else's schedule, so it's a relief to have the freedom of my own car for a while. The rental company blessed me with an incredibly sexy '98 Mitsubishi station wagon. At least I have room to spread out. Lake Tekapo is my first stop. I arrived mid-afternoon and set up shop in the Lakefront Backpacker Lodge. After a three-hour walk up the lake and back by way of the observatory, ...

We arrived at about 5pm to Te Anau, after the long day out at Milford, and were so happy when we moved into the really nice Lakefront Backpackers. With four bunks and a little kitchen and bathroom just for that room it was really cool and nice to put our feet up and relax! A beautiful lakefront location with mountains behind, its also a great place for walks, both day and multiday. Its a nice little town, but has absolutly everything you could need, so an ideal place to be able to organise ou...

Having already walked up the steepest street in the world in Dunedin just before we left, we made our way up to Lake Tekapo through more glacial rivers and lakes with Mount Cook in the background. Stunning scenery everywhere we looked, made the bus journey seem extremely short and after a couple of stops to take the obligatory photos we arrived in Lake Tekapo. The hostel we stayed in was designed specifically for those travelling on ´Magic´`and was right beside the Lake with stunning views an...

Als es dann von Dunedin nach Lake Tekapo ging, stand uns erst mal ne ganz schoen lange Strecke durch neuseelaendisches Hinterland bevor. Hinterland ist in diesem Fall keines Falls negativ gemeint, denn es war eine echt schoene Gruenlandschaft mit zahlreichen Fluessen und Seen und so manchem Schaf, das es sich genuesslich auf einer Weide gut gehen ließ. Lake Tekapo stellte sich dann als ein sehr gemütlich kleiner Ort heraus. Aber eben wie der Name schon sagt schön am See gelegen und sogar mit ...

Like many other cities in New Zealand, I'd never heard of Te Anau, let alone know how to properly pronounce it. It was the second day of our New Zealand road trip and we had covered some of the most spectacularly scenic kilometers this earth has to offer. I even busted out my portable stereo and played the Lord of the Rings soundtrack for a couple of hours on repeat as the road to Te Anau showcased Middle Earth's landscape through the windows of our Mitsubishi Lancer. Music makes all the diff...

I´d been looking forward to my trip to Milford Sound not only to see one of the most visited national parks in NZ, but it also gave the opportunity to stay on in Fjordand to take advantage of some of the great walking tracks available in that region. We were lucky enough to have a fairly empty bus for the tour, which gave us a chance to stop in a few more places to get the best shots for our photo albums (please be patient, more pix to be uploaded soon!). This broke up the journey nicely, as ...

A relaxing couple of days in Te Anau, a pretty little town on the borders of the Fjordland national park. A big jumping off point for extended walks in the parks, specifically for the Milford and Kepler tracks. Being somewhat short on time and lacking essential camping gear, I´d not attempted any of the longer tramps, but they´ll certainly be worth a return visit. Instead I enjoyed a 4hr stroll along the lakeside which took me past the lakes control gates, and into Brod Bay. From there it wou...

What a lot to catch up on! I have recovered from the disappointment of a lost post, and am geared up to produce another long-ass one. I'm even typing this on Word so that auto-recovery will get my back if there is another "incident". Nah actually it's because Internet in Te Anau costs $1 every 10 minutes and I can't afford to blog online. Dunedin was a city that was full of kindness to us. First there was Phill and Catherine who put us up for three nights although we were complete strangers t...

We headed south to Te Anau after Queenstown because it's the jumping-off point for excursions to Milford Sound. Te Anau itself doesn't have much to see, but there were a couple things to do int he surrounding area.

We decided to get up early the first morning we were there and hike the first part of the Kepler Track, which was going to take about eight hours. When I woke up at 7 a.m., though, I felt exhausted and decided not to go, especially after I thought about what the 1,000 meter ...

Dont want to seem like we're being slack but there isnt much to say on this town either, its really hard to do anything when you get there at 6pm and leave at 7:30am the next day! Except have dinner, which we did, jacket potato with cheese and beansm it was scrum!! :p Saying that however, our hostel was right on the lake front and it was the most gorgeous view at dusk!