I originally planned to do the Queenstown Hill Time Walk this morning, which goes straight up a hill behind Queenstown with good views of the town, but I woke up not feeling very well so I decided to do a shorter hike instead. I drove about twenty minutes down the shore of Lake Wakatipu to hike around Bob's Cove, which goes around an inlet of the lake. The hike took about an hour, and finished by climbing up a smaller hill to Picnic Point, which has good views of the cove I had just walked around.

After the pleasant hike, I set out on the road for a two hour drive to Te Anau. Te Anau is the gateway to Milford Sound in Fiordland National Park, and I planned to go there tomorrow. Along the way I stopped to eat some leftover lamb at a picnic site with a great view of the lake (the highways here are full of picnic sites like these along the sides of the roads)

The drive was pretty uneventful and after a little more than two hours I made it to Te Anau. Te Anau is technically outside of the Fiordland National Park, but the visitor's centre is located here, so I stopped inside to take a look.

I then proceeded to my hostel, Te Anau Lakefront Backpackers, to check-in. I had booked what had been advertised as a "glamping tent" online, but really it was just a teepee in the backyard that had a bed inside. One thing I did not realize is that there would not be any electrical outlets in the tent (I don't know why I expected that, but if it is a semi-permanent structure I don't know what is stopping them from installing outlets). It didn't affect much because I was able to just charge my phone with my portable charger, although one girl staying in the tent did bravely choose to leave her phone on a picnic table outside the main building to charge.

After checking out the teepee I headed to explore Te Anau town. It is pretty small, there is just a single street with a few shops and restaurants, and a couple of supermarkets and a hardware store. At the end of the street is Lake Te Anau, which is the largest lake in New Zealand by volume and second largest by surface area. The lake is beautiful, and the town is very cute, it reminded me of Boyne City (I do feel like the South Island of New Zealand is much like an extreme version of Northern Michigan with all the lakes and forests, the only difference being that the mountains are much taller and the lakes are much bigger).

Most places close pretty early and I did not have many choices for dinner, so I went to a bar/grill called The Range and got a cheeseburger, which was very good. By the time I left they were telling people there was a forty minute wait to get a table.

After dinner I headed back to my teepee to get settled in for bed. For the first time on my trip I actually had a conversation with my roommates, mostly because I walked in while they were having a conversation. They were three girls, one from Netherlands, one from Portugal, and one from Ireland. While I was trying to fall asleep the Irish girl had a spider crawl right along the canvas of the tent near her face and she got spooked. I guess she was equally as unprepared for the "tent" aspect of the glamping tent as I was.