RTW Trip Day #79: The Drive to Te Anau and the Bird Sanctuary

16 December 2025

Steps: 5,450

This morning we drove to Te Anau as we have a boat excursion booked for the next day at Milford Sound, and we wanted to split up the four hour drive.

As we were heading out of town, we passed the Kawarau bungy site, and we watched a few people bungy jump off the bridge. Not a chance that I would voluntarily do that!

Evelyn did seem keen to do the zipline though, so we’ll see if we get time to do that when we are back in Queenstown.

Driving to Te Anau

The drive to Te Anau is picturesque, and follows along Wakatipu lake.

It’s quite windy, so we made a few stops at the various lay byes, as Jess wasn’t feeling too good.

Te Anau Top 10 Holiday Park

After about 2 hours we arrived at the Top 10 holiday park where we are staying. Top 10 holiday parks are basic, but there is lots of room, and they are set up really well to cater for kids.

There was a jumping pillow which the kids really enjoyed playing on, and there was a hot tub too, although we didn’t use it.

Te Anau Bird Sanctuary

We didn’t have much time in Te Anau, but we did make a short visit to the Te Anau Bird Sanctuary, which is a free sanctuary for some of New Zealand’s endangered birds, especially the takahe.

There are only around 300 of these birds left on the planet and just 120 in the wild. Like the kiwi, takahe are flightless birds that historically had no predators, until settlers arrived and brought mammals like stouts and rats with them.

Dinner at Ranch Bar and Grill

For dinner we ate at the Ranch Bar and Grill, which was a bit of a mix between an English pub and a North American bar, with country music playing!

I had the lamb roast and it was really good, made all the better by the fact that I’d be craving a Sunday roast for ages - and they aren’t exactly prevalent throughout Asia.

Previous Day #78: Arrowtown and thr Onsen Hot Pools in Queenstown

Next Day #80: xxxxxx

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