13.3. – 16.3.2023
Fortunately, it stopped raining in the morning. We had breakfast and started to get ready to continue our journey. A white cat was wandering around the campsite and decided to jump into our campervan while we were packing up. The cat climbed onto one of the benches, and made himself comfortable. The kids were thrilled with this new travel companion and would have loved to take it along for the ride.
It rained on and off during the drive, but by the time we got to Te Anau, the weather was partly cloudy. We stayed at a campsite by the lake Te Anau for three nights. The site had a large ‘kangaroo trampoline’ (inflatable bouncy mattress), a playroom and a small play area for the children. Adults were particularly pleased with the small barrel sauna on site, which was free to use. So, for the first time in over two months, we were able to go to sauna in the evening. A real luxury!
On Tuesday we took a small boat across lake Te Anau towards the Glowworm Caves. During this 25min trip, the kids were also trained as captains. They seemed to be practicing turning the boat a lot! They said it was fun. Lake Te Anau is the second largest lake in New Zealand. It’s also the third deepest. But lake Te Anau wins the gold medal for being the most water-rich lake in the country.
When we reached the caves, we were divided into small groups of 12 to make it easier to walk around the caves. The caves are almost 7km long in total, but we only visited the beginning of the cave, where the glowworms lived. The cave has been carved out by the river that runs through it. It still flows there. It would have been great to take photos of the underground waterfall, but no photos were allowed in the cave. The light from cameras and other equipment causes the glowworms to turn off their own lights. Our guide naturally had a torch with her. Towards the end of our cave visit, we were put into a small boat and set off in pitch darkness along the river in the cave. As there were no lights, we could see the glowworms shining on the ceiling and walls of the cave very clearly. It was like looking at a beautiful starry sky. In the background, all we could hear was the sound of the waterfall. It was truly an amazing experience!
There were a lot of glowworms in the cave at this time of year, as there were still plenty of different insects in the cave for the worms to eat. Glowworms use their lights to attract insects towards them, and when they get close enough, the insects are caught in the sticky webbing made by the glowworms. The light is produced by bioluminescence. Glowworms have different chemicals on their tail-end which react with oxygen to produce a small glowing light. Many deep-sea fish also use the same technique.
On Wednesday, we took a trip to Milford Sound. It was about a couple of hours’ drive from Te Anau. The scenery along the way was once again very beautiful. We stopped at a lake area called Mirror Lakes, where the water actually works like a mirror. It reflects all the clouds in the sky and the mountains surrounding the lakes. One unfortunate duck-like bird tried its very best to destroy the mirror image with a desperate attempt to take off. We had to wait a while or two for the water to settle after it.
To reach the mountain, we had to drive through a 1.2km tunnel dug through the mountains. As there was only one lane, we had to wait for the traffic lights to change before we could dive into the tunnel. On the way to the fjord we were going downhill all the way, but on the way back it was of course the opposite. We wondered how cyclists heading up the fjord would manage the tunnel, especially on the way back. You really have to work hard to get out of the tunnel before the oncoming traffic comes into the tunnel again.
Unfortunately, the weather at Milford Sound was cloudy for the whole two-hour cruise. The cloudiness was no surprise, as it rains about 200 days a year in Milford Sound. Despite the clouds, the scenery was really spectacular. The highest mountain peaks around us reached over a kilometer high. Several small waterfalls and a few slightly larger ones plunged down from the mountains. Our skipper steered the boat really near one of the larger waterfalls, so everyone who wanted could get a refreshing mountain shower on the front deck of the boat. No surprise, our kids were in the front row, getting themselves wet. Luckily we had a sauna booking (our third time already), and we all got to warm up in the sauna in the evening.
