Te Anau

January 10^th.

The road to Te Anau

We had calculated that we have a lot of driving ahead of us in the next week. We have 2.5 hours to Te Anau on Thursday, 2.5 to Milford Sound on Friday morning and 4 hours to Queenstown on Friday afternoon. Then we get to stay put in Queenstown for 3 nights. Next we drive 5 hours to Fox Glacier on Monday, 3 hours to Hokitika on Tuesday and 4 hours back to Christchurch on Wednesday where we get to spend our last 2 nights before we go “home.”

We drove right through to Te Anau so we could have long stretches of uninterrupted time out of the car. We were promised that things would start warming up when we started driving north of Invercargill (at the southern tip of the south island,) and they were right. We left 50s and 60s behind and entered the land of low 70s and warm sun. However, their wind works overtime in this country with so much coastline.

Te Anau is a tourist town. Lake Te Anau is a very long lake with a few fjords coming off it. I think the lake itself is almost 100 kms long. We ate lunch in this park across the street from the lake to minimize the wind factor. In the park was a little human-made replica of Lake Te Anau in a garden with the fjords and the harbors all marked and real water about 6-8 inches deep. It was perfect for the kids' little wooden boats with the rubber band paddles. Gabe and Jordan played tour guide and told the passengers on their boats all about the “longest fjord in the world” and the “best harbor in the world” and gave out little facts and figures about the landscape as they floated through. They made it sound like all the tour guides we’d heard up to that point speak only in superlatives. Well let me tell you, the tour guides in New Zealand use more superlatives than any other tour guides in the whole world.

While the kids played in the miniature lake, Mark and I took turns shopping and sitting in the sun reading. It was lovely.

It was then time to board our boat that was to take us gently out on the lake with no waves to the caves where the glow worms live. You may never have head of glow worms before and that is because New Zealand is the “only place in the world” where they live. It was fascinating to see. We got off the boat that transported us across this gorgeous lake and went into a building to hear a little about the worms. Then we split up into small groups (right Craig and Em?) of 12 to the caves. First, we were led into the dark limestone caves and hunched ourselves over as we walked upstream along the fresh water river that flows inside this carved out cave. It was dark but we walked along a well-constructed walkway above the water with lights to help us through safely. We stopped to look at the waterfalls that came cascading over the edges of limestone walls and could see where the water had found weak spots in the limestone and was wearing it away. I wondered if they ever worried about the limestone completely giving way on top of one of these groups of 12.

We arrived at a section of the uphill stream that leveled out. They called this the grotto and it was where the glow worms chose to make their homes. Apparently they liked the quieter location, away from the loud waterfalls and rushing water. Behind the grotto was more uphill river. Very few people have been able to access the water that flows into the grotto from deeper back in the caves.

When we arrived at the grotto, we were directed to climb into this boat. It was sort of like a row boat but bigger. We sat 6 on each side facing the middle of the boat. The guide stood at the front of the boat and held onto the cables above him to pull us down the river. As soon as we were all settled, he turned off his flashlight and it was pitch black. Except, of course, for the glow worms. They were little neon green spots on the walls and ceilings not bright enough to light up the cave, more like stars in the backcountry sky. It was fascinating to know that they were really animals that I’d seen on the short DVD they showed us about the worms. I learned later that the brightest ones were the adults and the dimmer ones were babies. One guide said we were lucky to have been there after so many new worms had just hatched—she called it a veritable nursery in there. After craning my neck looking up at the green lights for a while, I stopped focusing on them and just enjoyed floating through a dark cave on the water in complete silence. It was almost an experience of sensory deprivation though a little too crowded to really get lost in it. I was relaxed. And so was Jordan who opted to sit on my lap for security as we entered the darkness. She had relaxed into the soothing of the floating and darkness and silence. Gabe and Mark were equally content to stare at the lights and enjoy the ride.

We could feel the boat turning around and knew when we were heading back out into the world we are more accustomed to. But I will always know that wherever I am, whatever I’m doing, there are these little worms that live way back in a cave in New Zealand who are enjoying the quiet and the dark.