Birds, Boats and Caves

It was decided by fate that today would be a leisurely day around Te Anau. We had tried to book a Milford Sound cruise the night before but were only able to book it for Thursday. They needed 24 hour notice. Since we were staying an extra night in Te Anau, we took our time getting ready in morning. The first thing we did once we were dressed and fed was to go to the local Fiordland National Park information center located in town. As we were walking into the building, there was a little, adorable fantail flitting about over a small section of the lake. Inside, we inquired about short day walks around the area but quickly decided that we weren’t really interested in hiking today. So, I purchased a little tui pin (I’m collecting a full set of all the birds I’ve seen in the wild so far) but they didn’t have a fantail pin and we were off again and walking though a flock of grey ducks to get to our car.

After some quick discussion, we decided that we’d take a glowworm tour in the afternoon, so we booked one for 3:15pm and wiled away the rest of the hours in town. We went over to the Te Anau Wildlife Reserve was several sad, little enclosures for birds that needed to spend their lives there because they weren’t able to be released back into the wild for one reason or another. We were able to see some very active Tahake and a very amusing Kaka. For lunch, we grabbed some hot, Thai chicken pies at the local bakery and the rest of the afternoon was taken up by wandering around the local shops.

A little before 3, we were down by the lake at the meeting point for the tour. This tour was rather unique in that it would include a 30 min boat ride across the lake to the cave both ways. It was an absolutely beautifully day and this made for a perfect way to see Lake Te Anau and its surrounding hills. We spent most of it up top, enjoying the scenery and sunshine. When we got the shore where the cave was located we saw lots of people waiting for their return trip to Te Anau. We were lucky that there was only a small handful of people with us in our timeslot, so that was going to make for a more enjoyable experience overall. Once we were all off the boat, we walked a few meters up to where the cave entrance was located and our guide, Heath began narrating. One interesting thing about the cave is that it had been a part of Maori legends for ages but was only located in 1948.

The entrance of the cave was very low, so we really had to duck our heads for the first few minutes as we navigated the grated, metal walkway. The cave was still being carved out by a very active river, which was rushing underneath our feet pretty much the entire length of the tour. The lights were kept low, as to keep the disturbance to the glowworms to a minimum, which made for a more exciting walk through the tight spaces. At all the stop points, Heath had to speak very loudly in order to be heard over the roar of the water. Though the glowworms were visible in several dark recesses on the ceiling as we walked, the best part is when we boarded a boat and then were pulled through quiet waters in complete darkness. This is not an experience for those who are afraid of the dark or small spaces because as we were moved through the water, you could tell only by how close the glowworms were to the boat that the ceiling wasn’t far above us. Though, it’s pretty spectacular to see the galaxy of blue lights from the glowworms shimmering on the black waters surrounding us. All was quiet, except for the occasional bumps of the metal boat against the walls and our whispers to each others. After our ride was done, we walked back through the cave the same way we came in, expect that we went down into one area to have a better view of one of the waterfalls carving the limestone.

We the ushered ourselves into the Cavern House, poured ourselves some hot drinks and watched a dvd of exactly what glowworms were really like up close as we waited for the boat to get back. Jacob later said to me that he really didn’t need to see that part because they were pretty gross. The ride back was quieter as we spent most of it inside and warm as the temperatures cool off very quickly around here. Once back in town, we wandered around until we found something suitable to eat, which ended up being Naturally Fiordlands, a small restaurant run by Germans and where we got ourselves some pretty decent pizza.

I know this makes the entry longer but I have to mention how wonderful it is to wander around at night here because the stars are bright enough to see the Milky Way, which is always a treat for me as it reminds me of childhood stargazing in Germany. I should also mention then as we were walking around town in the early moments of dusk, we saw a small meteor breakup over town. We both saw it and we agreed that’s what it was and were both pretty excited about that sighting. Oh, how you miss so many astrological events when you live in a place that is covered by clouds more often than its not.