te anau

Lake Te Anau

Right when we got off the bus in Te Anau, we headed to the Lakefront Backpacker for two nights. Te Anau is a small town with bars and pubs and cafes and tourists. But it also has great mountains and lakes and is practically touching Fiordland National Park. At 8:15 tonight, we took a tour of the glowworm caves. Having seen glowworms on Planet Earth, I had a slight idea of what to expect of them, but the 25 minute cruise to the caves had views that took my breath away without any warning! The sunset would peak out behind mountains on one side of the lake and boat and it would hit the mountains on the other side to make them seems as if they were glowing. There are also no houses or lights at all coming from the mountains, which makes it feel like I am experiencing this place before anybody else. So the glowworms. They were so interesting. We walked above the river that comes out of the cave and I was already feeling a little claustrophobic. There were parts that we had to duck below four feet and then squish between rocks that were three feet wide. This being said, I wouldn’t change it because it made me pay close attention to what was coming. The glowworms hang from the ceiling of the cave, their fishing line about 15-20cm. They glow a blue-white light to attract insects and moths to their fishing line, which has a chemical paralyzer on it. Once the poor victim comes into contact with the line, it is unusual that it escapes. The glowworm will then reel in its catch and suck out the insides and throw the shell down. There were millions of these glowing blue lights, which is a lot considering that they only glow when they are hungry. Once we were past the caves waterfall, we were taken in a boat to look up at the night glowworm stars. It was amazing, and we only got to see 250 metres of the entire 6.7 protected kilometres.

Hopefully this poems that we read while being introduced to our tour makes you laugh as much as it made us! It read ..

I wish I were a glowworm,

‘Cos a glowworm’s never glum.

How can you be grumpy,

when the sun shines out your bum?

Anyway, today was our free day. We used to trail walk and buy groceries for our stay in Milford Sound. We walked from our backpacker to a dam that we could see on the other side of Lake Te Anau. Over these four hours we got to see views of the mountains, bush, lake, and our backpacker. It wasn’t a very sunny day, but it was warm enough to wear shorts and my raincoat. Dinner was a shared pizza and salad from a local restaurant. Bed came early tonight because we were all tired from our walk and because we have a busy day ahead of us!