Te Anau Lakeside Walk: Visitor Centre to Control Gates
Te Anau · Southland · Point to Point
This walk was suggested by the community and checked against the authority quoted above before it was published. The route line comes from official track data. DOC’s own wording: “Dogs on a leash only. Other pets on conservation land rules. (DOC, Visitor Centre to Kepler Track Carpark Walk.) DOC's website said no dogs here until 26 August 2026, when the Fiordland National Park Visitor Centre told us its website was the part that was wrong and updated it to match the signage on the ground. Its Team Lead Eilish Graham wrote: "we have now updated our website to match all the signage. So, dogs are allowed on a leash between the DOC visitor centre to the Kepler Car park on the Lake2Lake track." The walk ends at the control gates. Do not cross the swing bridge there, or the one at Rainbow Reach: the far bank is Fiordland National Park, where bringing a dog is an offence under the National Parks Act”. Evidence: the rule-setter’s own published wording. How we check dog rules.
Good to know
Dogs are allowed here. Keep them on the lead, watch for ground-nesting birds and stock, and read the signs at the gate.
About Te Anau Lakeside Walk: Visitor Centre to Control Gates
Te Anau Lakeside Walk: Visitor Centre to Control Gates is a point-to-point of 4.1 km, near Te Anau in Southland.
The full lakeside walk from the Fiordland National Park Visitor Centre at 1 Lakefront Drive, south along the edge of Lake Te Anau to the Kepler Track carpark and the control gates. DOC grades it easy to intermediate, calls it 3.5 km one way to the carpark and allows 50 minutes. Our line runs 4.1 km because it carries on the last few hundred metres past the carpark to the gates themselves, which is where the view is and where a dog has to stop. DOC's own words for the rule are "Dogs on a leash only". It is a flat, well made path the whole way and it never leaves the water for long. You pass Punanga Manu o Te Anau, the bird sanctuary, where takahe, antipodean parakeets and other birds are held in open aviaries beside the track. Keep your dog close and on the lead through here, for obvious reasons. Past the sanctuary the track crosses open land below the golf course with the Murchison Mountains across the lake, then reaches the carpark that starts the Kepler Track. There are toilets at the carpark, and picnic and swimming spots along the way. The control gates are the turning point. They regulate the flow between Lake Te Anau and Lake Manapouri for the West Arm power station, and the lake pours out of them into the Waiau River, which is worth the walk on its own. A swing bridge crosses the gates and the Kepler Track carries on over it. That bridge is the boundary. Everything on the far side is Fiordland National Park, where having a dog is an offence under the National Parks Act, so turn around at the gates. The same goes for the Rainbow Reach bridge further down the river. This walk spent years being genuinely confusing. DOC's website said no dogs while DOC's own sign at the visitor centre showed a dog on a lead as permitted, and a panel at the bird sanctuary asked walkers to keep dogs under control. Daniel photographed the sign and asked us which was right. We put the question to the Te Anau visitor centre, and on 26 August 2026 its Team Lead Eilish Graham answered that the website was the part that was wrong: "We have now updated our website to match all the signage." DOC's page for this walk now reads "Dogs on a leash only". Daniel's sign was right all along, and this page exists because he did not let it go.
It sits at the easy end and gains roughly 20 m, and takes about 51 min to walk.
Dogs are allowed here, on the lead. This walk is on the map because Daniel & Zola suggested it, and we checked it against the source above.
