Manapouri Lakeview Motor Inn Te Anau

... nearly fell right off! Could feel the pain through my arm and shoulder for ages it was so cold. The views were so good- very snowy mountains and lots of avalance debris- they had only just re opened the road, and your not allowed to stop anywhere for long. We then stopped off for lunch, whilst it was cooking we went for a walk- i did snow angels!! And then we saw an avalance! It sounds like thunder adn gets louder and louder! We had a bbq lunch ...

... the caverns within. The cave itself had, at points, a vast ceiling reaching 25m high. As we went deeper into the cave, the lighting gradually dimmed and we were ushered to these boats that looked like they would take us to the dark pits of Hell. Thankfully, they only took us to the glowworm sanctuary which is a totally dark room illuminated by the natural light produced by the glowworm (a phenomenon known as bioilluminescence). The boat ride to the ...

... I was going to die and just wanting to get out of here, because today, I just don't want it to end. It's back in the moss-covered forest, the walking is easy, and the sun is out. But the day is not without challenges, because early on I come across a fallen tree in a particularly dense bit of forest, and I encounter another danger the DOC warned me against: losing the Track. It sounds ridiculous, but you have to understand the extent of the damage when a massive tree such as this comes ...

... near a fur seal colony and saw a few birds but nothing very interesting. quite an amazing place. water is quite brown due to all the tannins in it but not very salty considering its sea water - this is because there is a layer of fresh layer on top due to all the runoff as it so rainy! was lots of commentary from the shop captain and the nature guide, and after dinner we had a slide show which was more interesting ...

... leaping into space. It was totally pitch black apart from the thousands of tiny but bright specs of light, like stars in the sky. I had no idea that they would be that bright, although you still couldn't see your hand in front of your face. We gazed in wonder at the patterns formed in the dome; the glowworms don't like to get too close to each other as they tend to get eaten, so they form organised patterns across the walls. It was truly incredible.

... the views hazy. It's truly amazing how far it is between towns and then the towns are really only villages and it must be very odd to live in such small isolated places. You don't see a house on the roads for miles and miles. Arrived in Te Anau just after noon. It's on the second biggest lake in NZ but it looks smaller than Wakatipu as we're on the very end of it and it turns a corner so we only see a small portion ...