NZ (14 Dec): Lake Wanaka-Te Anau

Weather: Part Sun/Cloud with light rain

Milford Sound was the highlight to the stay at Te Anau. I’ll write more about later. The drive from Lake Wanaka to Te Anau was pretty easy, except when driving through the mountainous and windy sections on Crown Range. But the drive was spectacular and the view from the Crown Range Summit, 1,076m above sea level was awesome!

Crown Range Summit

Summit view. Look at the bald tree branches!

We stopped at a small town called Mossburn for a meal as well as to top up fuel. We had venison pie and a toast. The venison pie was served with very yummy plum sauce! I had a look at the bottle and found that it was produced in Geraldine, one of the towns we will pass by later in the trip.

Accommodation:
Aden Motel – NZD90/night ensuite studio with full kitchen. They have self-service laundry but more expensive compared to the others (NZD4/washing or drying). We were in unit no. 6 – a big, spacious room meant for 3 persons. Furnishing was a bit old but it was clean which was good enough. Kitchen was very well-equipped – good for cooking up a meal which we did ;) In terms of location, it was not situated in town centre, but an easy leisure walk of about 15min to town.

Entrance to the motel

Spacious bedroom

Separate (full) kitchen/stove

Bathroom

I read from Tripadvisor that Miles Better Pie was a must to try, so we headed to town (5min drive) and managed to grab the pies before it closed (they opened from 7am-3pm only). All types of pie cost NZD5 each – they had chicken and bacon, steak and cheese, steak, bacon and cheese and some others I don’t remember hehe.. The pie was quite delicious with chunky pieces of meat, and crust that was not too thick. It would have been better if the filling was a bit more moist. Actually for NZD5 a pie, it wasn’t cheap. Forgot to take pictures ;p