Trekking to Te Anau and Glowworms -- February 28

On the morning of Feb 28, we got up, packed up our car and headed to Te Anau.  It was a pleasant two-hour drive, full of stunningly beautiful and unique topography.  Here are some pictures along the route.

The Maori used wild flax for clothes (see previous pictures).  Here are some wild flax plants.  The stems were used for the reed-like portion of the clothes.  When in bloom, the flowers are orange.

Once there, we stopped at our last AirBnB to unload our suitcases.  Then we headed to the City Center to have a quick lunch before we headed to the marina area where we boarded a boat to go to the Glow Worm caves.

Nice boat trip on a fancy catamaran, with lots of beautiful scenery along the way.  We got a sneak peak at the surroundings of our tour tomorrow which will focus on the fiords of New Zealand.  Lake Te Anau is beautiful with the rugged mountains surrounding it.

This was not our boat but was tethered next to it.  It's a sailboat which can be hired, 

complete with a couple of sea-outfitted captains. 

At the Glow Worm Caverns, we were broken up into groups of about 12 to enter the caverns.  Utterly amazing to see the ferociously rushing water and the areas that had been and were being dug out by the water.  Happily, the owners had done an excellent job of building the walkways for us, and although we occasionally had to do a low duck walk for a bit, the trek was mostly easy. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures while inside the caverns, but I did take some pictures off a TV screen in the Centre.

During this trek, we got a sneak peak at the Glow Worms as they were building their webs.  We walked a bit further, and then our group boarded a small boat, barely large enough for our group.  We were told not to speak or to shine any lights.  We cruised around (actually our guide was pulling us along with a chain) basically in a circle on the water inside a very dark cave.  We could see thousands of glowworms above us and around us.

We finished our boat trek and then took another hike to get out of the caverns.  Then we had another very short hike through a forest-type region before we entered the main building.  At that point, someone lectured on the life stages of the glow worm.   Basically, they eat, procreate, and then die.  What a life (not).  Fascinating though.

After our lecture, we boarded the large catamaran again to head back to Te Anau.  We bought a bit of food, headed back to our “home,” had some cocktails, then walked downtown to have dinner at a pizza/pasta place.  Then “home” again -- we went to rest up for our final day of touring.