Glowing with enthusiasm
Trip Start
Sep 10, 2008
1
42
71
Trip End
Sep 03, 2009
Te Anau,
South Island,
New Zealand
Sunday, March 8, 2009
The weather wasn't great. It was far less than great. At least it wasn't raining, which apparently it did for the entire day before. And heavy rain means lots of waterfalls, of which we got the full benefit of, without the rain. It was a nice journey, winding us through the mountains and trees. We saw "scars" left where there had been tree avalanches. The trees cling to each other in order to keep there balance on the rock they grow on. If one goes, they all go. It wasn't just the trees that avalanche here, in the middle of winter; the road is regularly cut off for days, even weeks, when snowfall from the surrounding mountains falls onto the road. I was quite grateful that I wasn't there to witness that! We took regular photo stops, although they were thankfully quite brief as it was so cold outside. At one of the stops we refilled our water bottles straight from the stream as the water was so pure.
As we made our way through the mountains, along a road that many people perished trying to build, thankfully the clouds started to lift.
Journey to Te Anau 1
We stopped at a Lake where the water was so still it produced a perfect mirror image of the dramatic mountains behind it. We stopped to look over one of the highest forests in New Zealand. We stopped just to admire the view of the road winding its way into the distance down the mountainside. It was truly beautiful. And we made it to the main attraction, a boat ride through the beautiful Milford sounds. Well, we had to take other people's words for it, as the cloud was so low, we could only see the waterfalls trickling down the sides of the vast mountains next to our boat. I spent most of the boat journey chatting to a lovely girl called Sally whilst we ate our complimentary lunch. There really wasn't much to see! As the boat turned around in the sound, we made our way out to stand on the cold deck. We managed to get places at the very front of the boat. The scenery was certainly very dramatic, with the dark, eerie shapes of the mountains looming underneath the cloud cover.
As we headed back, I was grateful I had Sally for company and we could try to drown out the driver as we made our way back. I was also thankful that I was staying in Te Anau, rather than trying to make it the whole way back to Queenstown in one day. On our stop in Te Anau on the way to Milford sounds, I had stopped in the tourist information to book a glow-worm caves trip. I also asked what else there was to do in the area, to which her answer was "not much really". Mmm, I could see this was going to be an exciting couple of days!
No matter, I jumped on the boat to the glow-worm caves with enthusiasm the next day.
Journey to Te Anau 2
The trip organisers explained to us that the glow-worms wouldn't glow unless there was absolute darkness and silence. We were shown a DVD, that zoomed in on the tiny worms, describing their life, and the tiny fishing lines hanging from their perches to catch any insects that wonder too close. Carefully avoiding the group with the screaming child, we made our way through the caves. I wasn't prepared for how loud the caves were, the water gushing through the complex at great speed was almost deafening. You could barely hear the guides even though they were nearly shouting. The caves themselves were rather impressive, for much of the way, we walked on metal boardwalks, build over the gushing river. We eventually got to the small boat that would take us to the cavern with the glowworms, although we had already seen a few dotted around. It was a little scary getting onto the boat, the way we were going was pitch black, and all we could hear was the loud gushing water, it sounded like we were about to go white water rafting!
We waited in silence and with anticipation as our guide began to literally pull our boat through the caves; there was no motor here, only a wire. We began to see more and more lights dotted through the caves. And then we got into the cavern. Much quieter here, it was like 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.
