Parking
Park at the Kepler Track carpark by the Control Gates, about 5 km from Te Anau via Golf Course Road.
Overview
About Dock Bay Track
Why go
- Easy shoreline walking through beech forest
- Dock Bay offers a sandy lakeside break and swim option
Heads up
- Sandflies are common around the bays
- Cold, wet weather can make the track slippery outside summer
Map & elevation
The route
Loading the Fiordland map
Full mapElevation203–245 m
Plan your hike
Before you go
Parking
Safety
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Fiordland Tour Guide
Your drive to Dock Bay Track, narrated.
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Fiordland National Park. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
See the Fiordland audio tourMore stories near here in the app
- Te Anau: The Gateway to Fiordland
- Te Anau: Fiordland's Adventure Basecamp
- Te Anau's Living Galaxy
- Queens Reach: The River Anduin
- 126 audio storiesacross Fiordland’s roads, triggered by GPS as you drive
- Wildlife heatmapsfor Kea, Fiordland Penguin, Blue Duck, and 13 more
- Works offlinemaps, 68 trails, 124 places, and audio download before you lose signal
- CarPlay readysimple controls built for the drive
“Fantastic app with many points of information… It’s great to just turn on while you’re driving and it gives you an audio tour of the national Park. We love it!!!!”
Trail guide
Hiking Dock Bay Track
A short lakeside walkDock Bay is the easy first day-walk section of the Kepler Track from the Control Gates.
Dock Bay is the easy first day-walk section of the Kepler Track from the Control Gates. The out-and-back is 2.9 miles (4.6 km) in total, with about 40 minutes each way. Expect a well-formed, gently rolling track through beech forest, with the lake appearing between the trees and a sandy bay at the turnaround.
Follow the shorelineStart at the Kepler Track carpark and cross the Control Gates bridge onto the lakeshore track.
Start at the Kepler Track carpark and cross the Control Gates bridge onto the lakeshore track. The route stored here follows the mapped corridor to Dock Bay; the listed distance includes the return walk, while the line represents the one-way corridor. If you continue beyond Dock Bay, you’re choosing a longer Kepler Track outing, not adding it to this short walk. For a useful photo, include the shoreline and a little forest in the same frame so the lakeside setting comes through.
Access and preparationThe carpark is about 5 km from Te Anau via Golf Course Road.
The carpark is about 5 km from Te Anau via Golf Course Road. Dogs aren’t permitted beyond the Control Gates. Sandflies are common around the bays, so repellent is worth packing. Outside the warmer months, expect cold, wet weather and possible ice; water at DOC facilities is untreated, so boil it before drinking.
Wildlife
Wildlife in Fiordland
1,181 sightingsKeaMost seen around 10 AMSighting map
199 sightingsFiordland PenguinMost seen around 7 PMSighting map
228 sightingsBlue DuckMost seen around 5 PMSighting map
32 sightingsBottlenose DolphinMost seen around 5 PMSighting map
247 sightingsNew Zealand Fur SealMost seen around 6 PMSighting map
58 sightingsKākāMost seen around 6 PMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Fiordland. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
