Te Anau is the site of the headquarters of Fiordland National Park and is an important place to stop for information.

Lake Te Anau is a very beautiful lake set in bush clad mountains and is the second largest lake in New Zealand. (Lake Taupo in the North Island is the largest.)

The town of Te Anau is beside the lake and offers various activities, including local walks, and a visit to the Department of Conservation (DOC) Wildlife Centre. There you can see a variety of native birds including the rare takahe long thought to be extinct but discovered in the Murchison Mountains near

Te Anau in 1948. The grasses on which they live were being eaten by deer and the species was seriously threatened, but when the deer were culled the bird population began to increase and DOC officers have kept it around 200, and have established colonies on some sanctuary islands.

From Te Anau there are launch trips to the Te An-au Glow Worm Caves.

For many visitors Te Anau is the gateway to the Milford, Routeburn, Hollyford, and Kepler Tracks, and trips to Lake Manapouri, Milford Sound, and Doubtful Sound and Dusky Sound. The whole Fiordland area is scenic and largely unspoiled and well worth a visit. This means that the town is a busy tourist centre.