Day 8: Tuatapere to Te Anau

That was a good deal: dinner (including drinks), bed (including TV), and breakfast (including whitebait fritters) all for $90 each. Had a look at the nearby Clifden Suspension Bridge, then did the 'big totara walk', a pleasant bush walk (after driving through beech forest) where there were indeed many huge totara, some estimated to be 1000 years old. Pressing on, we reached Manapouri, the second-deepest lake in NZ) and then on to Te Anau, NZ's largest (by volume) and second-largest in area next to Lake Taupo.
One major disappointment for me was the fact that the underground

Manapouri Power Station, which supplies electricity in a direct line to Tiwai Point aluminium smelter in Bluff, was closed for maintenance.
While in Te Anau, we did two excellent things: walked the first half-hour or so of the Kepler Track—again, another very picturesque beech forest walk—and secondly, took a ferry tour to the Te Anau glow-worm caves. This was better value than Waitomo Caves: same sort of thing, but better organised, more informative, and much more exciting . (It was our experience that all walkways on all tracks were really well-designed, well-built, and well-maintained). After a big dinner I walked back to our tiny cabin at the Lakeside Holiday Park.

Map points: Tuatapere, Clifden, Manapouri, Te Anau

Pictures: Clifden Suspension Bridge; Waiaou Valley; Big totara; Kepler Track