It was 5PM in Te Anau, and from our experience on the way out yesterday we know that the town absolutely shuts down at 9PM. So, we decided to take advantage of the final four hours of the Te Anau night. We saw a great movie in town called "Shadowland," which is a half hour of footage captured by a local helicopter pilot on flights throughout Fiordland. Captured from a very unique standpoint, the scenery was spectacular. The manager of the theatre came in to talk to us before the show and explain how the movie and theater came to be. He told us that the pilot had been flying most of his life and wanted to capture some of the amazing scenery on film. He partnered with a filmmaker from Queenstown and spent two years gathering footage. He also wanted to build a proper theater to play his movie, so he chose Te Anau and gave the town the theater as a gift. It is the only place in the world that plays this movie on 35 mm film.

After the movie, we headed back to the holiday park and its really nice kitchen. We whipped up some homemade meat sauce and had pasta, salad, pie, and New Zealand ice cream. It was GOOD!

The next day was a national holiday called "ANZAC Day." ANZAC stands for Australia New Zealand Army Corps, and the holiday commemorates the soldiers from the two nations who died in battle in World War I. New Zealand lost the highest percentage of soldiers sent amongst the countries that contributed soldiers to the battlefield. The holiday is spent remembering their courage, acknowledging the fact that this was the first time the South Pacific neighbors sent a contingent into a global conflict, and celebrating the friendship between the two neighboring countries.

Each small town in New Zealand celebrates ANZAC day with a parade, and I decided to check it out. Bev wasn't as into the ANZAC spirit as I was, so we split off for a little bit. I headed downtown to watch them set up for the parade and to absorb small town New Zealand. It was really cool to see how they came together; it was very similar to a small town American celebration with funky accents. I watched some pre-parade festivities, saw the parade take off, and accepted an invitation to join in it. We walked to the ANZAC memorial at the other side of town (if it was longer than three blocks, I'd be shocked) and listened to the speeches by the town leadership and guest speakers. Leaders from various segments of the community laid wreaths at the ANZAC memorial, and everyone laid handmade red felt poppies on the memorial after the service. As the folks in Te Anau said to honor the soldiers, "Lest we forget."

I rejoined Bev, and we headed back into town. We grabbed a bite, and I recounted the ANZAC festivities. We spent a little time down by the lake, one of the largest in New Zealand, and then we made our way back to eh camper. It was a really nice day, but we wanted to get going to our next destination, Wanaka. We got going just after lunch, with only a few hours of daylight to spare.