Lake Te Anau & Surrounds, Natural Heritage - Lake History and Photographs

Shared by Central & Western Murihiku Southland Archive

Lake Te Anau & Surrounds, Natural Heritage - Lake History & Photographs : Photo of the lake at Te Anau, within the Fiordland or Te Rua-o-Te-Moko National Park. One of many thousands of natural heritage sites within that, this really wonderful vista of the lake and the mountains surrounding it, show the extent of the entire lake from north to south, although there are another three arms to the west, which are not in the image. Taken by William Patino, Fiordland photographer and kindly shared with us, also reproduced here with permission. (C) Please note this image is Copyright! The photographer explains this image is taken from the northern end and the township of Te Anau is at the other, southern end. Rivers flow into the lake from all around and the main outlet at the southern or town end is the Waiau River. According to texts on the lake, it is approx 60km long and the 2nd largest lake in Aotearoa NZ. More earlier history is listed below: EARLY DISTRICT HISTORY: In the Fiordland National Park Board book, 'Fiordland National Park' written by Gerard Hall-Jones, the original name of Te Ana-au is used a lot. Gerard states that the shoreline of Lake Te Anau is approximately 500 kilometres, which is a very vast area. Mostly bushclad, there are a few sandy beaches, especially on the south side where the town of Te Anau is situated. The most popular tourist attraction of the Lake is the Glow Worm Cave full of pūrātoke (glow worms), discovered in 1948, situated under the Murchison Mountains, between the South and Middle Fiords, and just 16km from the township. This find backs up the local Māori legend of a cave "filled with glowing light across the shores of Te Ana-au. The name 'Ana' means cave, and 'au' means swirling. An underground torrent runs through the cave! While William Anderson's 'Milford Trails' book shows us the evidence that among the first Europeans to reach Lake Te Anau, were CJ Nairn who was a runholder and W Stephens, son of Dunedin's first judge. They reached the southern end of the lake on 26 January 1852. John McKay has also been credited with being the first, but as pointed out, there is no written evidence of this, as there was for Nairn. Following on from this, James McKerrow was to survey Lake Te Anau and its three arms in 1862. Anderson continues his recording of Lake Te Anau in his 'Milford Tales', covering how the Te Anau area was adjacent to a virtually undiscovered wilderness, prior to MacKinnon Pass being found. That was well and truly reversed as the town became the centre of the highway into Milford, many years later. He notes how even proponents of the township were blown away by the sheer amount of tourist traffic coming their way. Te Anau itself was first surveyed in 1893, which was not long after the Milford Track opened. The township we know now, only developed as a tourist resort after the opening of the Homer Tunnel which allowed a traffic route into Milford in 1953. From the Fiordland National Park Board publication, from 1973, it is interesting to see that the visitor numbers to the district were 300,000, with THC (Tourist Hotel Corporation) operating hotels in both Te Anau and Milford, with a Motor Inn at Manapōuri & three more elsewhere. Compared to modern tourism below, numbers are now more than double! STATISTICS: Lake Te Anau is the true source of the Waiau River. The Upper Waiau River flows from here into Lake Manapōuri or Motu-rau and onwards from there until it reaches the Waiau River Mouth, in Te Waewae Bay. Lake Te Anau at 348 sq km is Aotearoa New Zealand’s second largest lake. It is situated 212 metres above sea level, is 61 km long and its deepest point is 276 m. It has three fiords, these are unimaginatively named as South, Middle and North Fiord, thanks to explorer James McKerrow. CURRENT DAY TE ANAU Te Anau is now a bustling town, but still a tourist one, so the numbers of residents always rises in summer time. It is also now a very popular retirement village for those in the Western Southland districts. The rise in interest as a place to own a holiday home, retirement or spend the summer has seen whole new subdivisions be created, with more on the way (2025). There were 641,600 visitors logged by the Fiordland regional tourism organisation in 2023. Te Anau is on the way to Milford, so many national and international tourists pass through it, and most of these would stop, even if just to fuel up their vehicles. Many stay en route to Milford Sound. Some choose to stay outside of Te Anau in the smaller, cosier Manapōuri. Archivists comment: At the CWA Community & Heritage Hub, operated by Central & Western Archive - Murihiku Southland, we have books, records and photos on the history of this area, lakes, mountains, tracks and more. Hopefully this entry will be added to as more information on the history comes to hand. If you or anyone you know has any more information or photos to share or accounts of Lake Te Anau, or the wider area of Fiordland or Te Rua-o-Te-Moko, please do share this with us in the comments section. You can do this by making a comment in the space provided under the image page. Or you can make contact with us as per the archive front page.