Te Anau and Manapouri

Having obtained a new air mattress, we headed further south through Te Anau and on to where we would be camping in Manapouri. Te Anau is the town at the south end of the road to Milford Sound. We decided to go to Doubtful Sound instead.


To see Doubtful Sound required a tour and two overnights. We camped at a place that had been built in the 1970s. The original owner had come from California. He brought trees from there and had planted them in the campground. We knew it felt like we were in the US and once we talked to the proprietor we understood why. The campground had a collection of old cars sitting out. Dennis borrowed a bicycle and rode around. We discovered an old play area with a tree fort and an underground tunnel. In the toilet stalls were old Far Side cartoons for our reading pleasure. The water from Lake Manapouri was excellent tasting--the signs they had posted did not lie!