Te Anau is a town in the Southland region of the South Island of New Zealand. In Maori, Te-Anau means the Place of the Swirling Waters.^[3] It is on the eastern shore of Lake Te Anau in Fiordland. Te Anau is 155 kilometres north of Invercargill and 171 kilometres to the southwest of Queenstown (via state highway 6). Manapouri lies 21 kilometres to the south. Te Anau lies at the southern end of the Milford Road, (State Highway 94) 117 kilometres to the south of Milford Sound.

History

The first Europeans (C.J. Nairn and W.J. Stephen) to visit the lake were led by Maori guides visited in 1852. The lake was formally surveyed first in 1863.^[4] The township was surveyed in 1893. This was soon after the Milford Track opened. The town only really started to grow after the opening of the Homer Tunnel and road route to Milford in 1953.^[5]