Te Anau
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| Driving back along the Lake to Queenstown to pick Maggie up at the airport. |
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| We picked up Maggie at Queenstown Airport -- she had caught the early flight from Auckland -- and then headed into downtown Queenstown for some breakfast at Joe's Garage. Recommended! |
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After scouting out Queenstown -- we would be returning in two days -- we climbed into the car and headed south, then west to Te Anau where we would stay the night. Lynnette and I had been putting long days on the road the last few days, but the drive to Te Anau was an easy two-hour drive through mostly flat and scenic country.
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| The town of Te Anau is at the southern end of the large Lake Te Anau. Te Anau is a good jump off point for driving to Milford Sound which we would be doing tomorrow. |
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We checked out the Visitor Centre at Te Anau which had good info on the Fiordland.
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| A model of Captain James Cook ship H.M.S. Resolution, in which he explored New Zealand on his second voyage of discovery. |
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Lake Te Anau.
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I was very tempted to take a scenic ride in this float plane, but although the weather was good here in Te Anau, it was not good on the other side of the mountains, in what is know as the Fjordland and includes Milford and Doubtful Sound.
We did see "Fiordland on Film" in the town movie theater which was excellent with a lot of aerial footage which is the only way you can see a lot of spectacular scenery.
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They think a few Takahe birds are still walking about the Fiordland area but they are not quite this big.
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| This most popular thing to do in Te Anau is go see the GlowWorm caves. So of course we had to do that. You have to take a boat to get to the caves, which are pretty cool -- no pun intended -- in and of themselves. |
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| Happy boaters. |
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| The earlier boat was sold out but in the end I'm glad we got the later boat because of the great pictures I was able to take as the sun was going down. |
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| When I was signing up for the GlowWorm Cave tour, I was thinking it might be a tourist trap. But the boat ride across Lake Te Anau was great, and then they did an excellent job of explaining all about Glow Worms, which are actually quite interesting. Then you go into the Cave. After walking awhile into the cave, your group of about 12 people gets into a boat and you head into the darkness. The glow worms are above you, each one a point of light, and its almost as if you are outside looking at stars. |
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We stayed at a B&B in Te Anau which was very nice. The host was a big rugby fan. The white dog is "Rusty". When we came back from the Glow Worm Cave and dinner, it had started drizzling. Rusty was outside and followed us in, jumped on Maggie's bed, and promptly went to sleep. He stayed there all night. We found out later that he normally sleeps in the garage!
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