TE ANAU GLOW WORMS

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Moving from Queenstown to Te Anau today only takes a couple of hours drive. The landscape we passed through was mostly pasture housing some cows, red deer farms and millions of sheep! I never saw soooo many sheep. It should be on every menu in every restaurant. I have to admit that the lamb shank we had in the very first hotel we stayed in was super delicious.

Along the roadsides, wild yellow lupines and gorse grow in profusion. Lupines are not a problem, but gorse is as it is highly invasive. We came across an area of native tussuck grass which early settlers tried to eradicate but ended up causing erosion problems. They wanted to eradicate it because they were trying to establish pasture for sheep.

Te Anau is the gateway to Fiordland National Park and Milford Sound. There are snow covered mountains completely surrounding this area.

Te Anau Caves feature a limestone grotto of glow worms and an underground waterfall. First we take a 40 minute boat ride to the other side of Te Anau lake where we disembark and cross over into the information centre. In groups of about 12, we enter the cave by bending over and walking across a metal bridge which spans the rushing water exiting the cave. There are metal walkways built over the stream to make it easier to traverse the cave. The crystal clear water is surging through the limestone cave system that has been worn down by 1,000’s of years of erosion. Well into the cave lives a huge eel. He is about 4 feet long and he hovers back in a corner out of the full force of the water. Apparently there are plenty of tidbits for him to pick up in the rich glacial water. Lighting is sparse in the cave along the walkways to not disturb the glow worms. They are tiny larva that attach themselves to the ceiling of the grotto and then spool out mucous in long stringy ”fishing lines”. Their glow attracts flying insects that get stuck in the fishing lines and the larvae reel them in and eat them. The larva live for 9 months in this state before turning into pupa and maturing into gnats who then repeat the process. The older the larva the larger their glow. Their glow also increases when food is present. At the end of the walkway we got onto a boat and floated through complete darkness and silence to view thousands of glow worms on the ceiling of the cave. Because we weren’t allowed to take pictures, the photos you see here I got from the internet.

A return trip across the lake gives us some free time before dinner tonight in the hotel restaurant. I did some quick shopping and bought possum fur gloves which were on sale (I am the Queen of Cheap!). I had seen the same gloves in other stores for $40-50 & I bought them for $18 NZ.

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