Glow Worms

Wednesday morning we left Queenstown and headed South (and a bit west for awhile) to Te Anau.  It was another gorgeous day with great scenery along the way.  I have heard it said that there are somewhere between 4 and 20 sheep per Kiwi (person from New Zealand).  I think we saw a pretty good portion of those sheep.  They covered the hillsides.  All the little white dots in the picture are sheep.

When we got to Te Anau we had a picnic lunch of fish and chips.  It was another gorgeous day so it was fun to sit in the sun at a picnic table.  (Granted we were in sweatshirts and jackets... but it was still nice.) 

We then boarded the boat to the glow worm caves.  Mom, LilliAnn, and I braved the top deck and all the wind to get the great view and to get good pictures.  Plus... what 11 year old wouldn't want to be out on the deck.  Dad, gallantly stayed with our stuff inside.

 

It was a tad cold.

 But it was beautiful.

Once we got to where the caves were we disembarked and were divided into groups.  We then hiked into the cave.  We had to bend all the way over at the waist and crouch to get into the cave.  We weren't allowed to take pictures, so I don't have any for you to see.  It is a relatively new cave, so the big stalactite we saw was about an inch and a half long.  There was quite the stream roaring through the cave that we walked over on a raised sidewalk.  We then boarded a boat and all the lights were turned out.  The guide moved us through the cave using guide ropes.  In the pitch black, the ceiling of the cave looked like the night sky because of all the ends of glow worms lit up kind of like fireflies, except on permanently.  Bugs in the cave are attracted to the light then get tangled in little sticky strands the glowworm creates.  It was really pretty cool.  On the way back we stopped for awhile.  After a bit I realized another group was passing us.  We could only see them because there was a little glowing sticker on the corner of the boat.  I was the only one in the family that realized they had passed by.  It was that dark and we were all asked to be very quiet... I guess not to scare the worms?

After the caves we could hike along a short nature trail.  The lake (Lake Te Anau) is on the edge of the fiordlands and gets lots of rain.  It was super green including lots of ferns.

After some more information on the glow worms (where I resisted asking exactly what chemicals caused the bioluminescence), we headed back to the boat and back to Te Anau.  (But I think they may use luciferin and luciferase like fireflies).  From Te Anau, we loaded up then headed to Invercargill.  When we got to Invercargill we ate dinner at a Thai restaurant that Mom has been talking about for two years.  It was pretty good, but it wasn't Ann Thai. 

We then came to Grant and Chrissy's.  It is always fun to spend time with them.  I have many fond memories of their house and cooking breakfasts in their kitchen.  Its good to spend time in Invercargill again.