April 21 - Te Anau

 We drove to a small tourist town n the southern west coast where the fjords are.  The way here was twisty, with the southern alps in our view the entire way.  The peaks remain with a dusting of snow ….gorgeous to view.  The forecast is for it to warm up a bit next week, but for now it’s cool and windy with a low cloud base.  

The town is on a lake of the same name, the second largest lake in New Zealand with a depth of up to 420meters.  We booked a tour to see the glow worms.  A 2 1/2 hour tour that started with a boat ride across the lake, with great views.  Once we arrived we were split up into smaller groups and headed off into the caves to see them.  A 500m walk crouching low at times, 47 stairs and walking on metal grates with water rushing just under our feet.  We both had feelings of vertigo.  The water flow was deafening- could hear anything but that.  

At the far end we entered a grotto where we sat in a boat / away from the rushing water where it was quiet, looking up at all the glow worms.  We weren’t allowed to take photos, so I took photos of the video they showed us after the experience.  

The worms are translucent and only the tip glows so when we are looking at them in the dark….they look like stars in the heavens.  They grow to be 4cm long, and as soon as the eggs hatch, they spend 9 months building these long strings to catch insects to eat.  After these 9 months of eating, they turn into a flying insect lasting only a few days before the females lay up to 100 eggs and then die for the cycle to start over.  

This was a great excursions and we loved it.  Ted is doing really well walking longer distances, even with his boot on!  We didn’t do much exploring of the town as it’s only 2C with a wind.  So cold!