Nelson Lakes National Park Visitor Centre — Attraction in South Island

Hello,  we are visitors from Australia and today visited St Arnaud in the Nelson Lakes national Park.

Whilst we enjoyed the park and the pristine conditions and the constant signage that the park is focused on the welfare of animals and keeping the area's natural environment free of pests,  we did notice that one of the ducks at the foreshore area had a severe foot injury.(see attached photos)

The foot seemed gangrenous and half hanging off. The duck was hobbling around and clearly in discomfort and most likely in pain, constantly pulling at the decomposing piece of foot.

We approached the person manning the office at the St Arnaud visitor centre who seemed to disregard our concerns and said "the duck pretends to be in discomfort to get more food from tourists" and that they don't intervene.

To be honest we don't buy that story.  We feel there was no interest to assist the poor animal. A vet could remove the gangrenous foot and make life more liveable for the poor duck rather than have it live in pain unnecessarily!

I noticed that there were plenty of duck photo souvenirs for sale in the visitor centre so clearly this is a draw card for tourists who enjoy the waterfront. People such as us who enjoy the natural environment believe that all animals deserve humane treatment not just the select few.

We feel that if your are sincere about the natural environment, your will do something to assist this animal urgently. it was certainly a negative aspect to our day at St Arnaud that we...

Rude employees. Gave us inaccurate information about the trail to Angelus Hut. I assume to try to discourage us from attempting the hike. We arrived at 1pm to pick up last minute information on the trail conditions and weather for our hike out to the hut that afternoon. The male ranger kind of chuckled at us and told us it was 7 hours walk. Yet the DOC advertises the hike as 6 hours. It took us 4.5 hours. Robert Ridge does have some challenging areas with rock scrambling, but sure-footed hikers will make it well under 6 hours. I get it that some people may show up un- or underprepared, and you want to discourage against people taking on more than they can handle. But don't laugh at people who are maybe starting a little later than normal and definitely don't give them inaccurate information. Accurately explaining the challenges of the hike would go much further in keeping people...

Great little visitor centre.

The staff are super helpful. There is a cool little display that shows the local wildlife and a shirt blurb about each with realistic photos to make identification easy if you manage to spot them.

The lakes themselves are stunning.

The clarity of the water and surrounding scenery are something to call home and tell your mom about haha.

Lots of bird life and most of them will be hapily chirping away as you walk through the gorgeous local Forrest's.

I highly recommend doing the waterfall walk. It's short and sweet. The path is well maintained with some short river crossings.

The waterfall itself is highly worth the walk.

If you are willing to then a swim in the lakes with give you a great experience as it is very refreshing and the views will help you forget how cold...