Kyacks & Glow Worms

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Today we had arranged to take a bus to the town of 'Te Anau' 2 hours south of QT. We had some time in the morning, so decided to hire out some kyacks and spuddle in the lake for a bit. Queenstown is a busy, bustling place especially at this time of year, so it was a welcome change to escape into the serenity of the lake. The water's incredibly clear and there’s definitely something special about paddling along with nothing before you but lake, and mountains rising in the distance.

When early afternoon arrived we got our bus to Te Anua- a pleasant and scenic journey. We'd arranged -through our hostel of the night before- to visit the 'Glow Worm Caves' at Te Anau that evening. Having checked our gear in at a holiday park we went into Te Anau in search of dinner, before boarding the ferry to the caves at around 8.30.

The Glow Worm Caves feature in Maori mythology and can be found in other parts of NZ too. It takes about 30 mins by boat to cross lake Te Anau to the Caves. This area -known as 'Fjordland'- receives a lot of rainfall; and apparently when it rains hard, the level of the entire lake can change by a meter or two in just a few hours! The cave we went to had a river running through it, and some excellent waterfalls and rock formations. At the end of the cave, our tour group got into a boat, on a small lake. By the time we'd moved further into the lake, everything was completely dark, except for hundreds of Glow Worms, glowing away on the cavern roof above. It seemed to be a kind of green-ish cosmos, pretty fascinating. No photos unfortunately... it's probably one of those things you can't really capture to be honest.

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