Lake Manapouri Hydroelectric Power Station

New Zealand generates 60% of it's electricity from Hydro electric sources. Lake Manapouri is home to the first one built in NZ and the second largest. Built between 1963 and 1970 it can generate upto 700MW now that they've dug a second tail race to drain the water more efficiently away from the turbines into Doubtful Sound. After finishing our walk around the lake, we opted for an easy day so took a boat trip accross the lake to go on a tour of the power station. Geektastic! The main turbine hall is 200m down inside the mountain and you can go down on a bus and have a look. Impressive bit of engineering! In the 1970's it was the source of NZs first major environmental campaign when the idea of raising the levels of Lake Te Anau and Lake Manapouri to maximise efficiency met with massive opposition. Fortunately the plans were scrapped and now the lake levels are closely monitored in order not to damage the surrounding environment.
After looking round inside the mountain, we got driven up to the top to look down the other side into Doubtful Sound where the tail race emerges. Next time we come here I think we'll make the effort to go down there properly. It's loads bigger than Milford Sound and much quiter because it can only be accessed by boat. The downside being that this costs a fair chunk of cash that we need to spend on our poorly van.