South Island - NZ -Te Anau

Te Anau - December 20-22

Road to Te Anau.  GREEN
So much undeveloped land, flat land sheared and un-sheared sheep
Mountains on either side with the water to my right 
Then flat green land some with cows - black Angus, some black and white ones all beef cows
Pens of deer, random!
But mostly sheep!

Aside:  Te Anau is an ancient Maori name which means 'Cave with a current of swirling water.'

Lake Te Anau

Te Anau has the second largest lake  but deepest lake in NZ. 
Fiordland National Park - NZ largest World Heritage Site. 

see the helicopter on the right?

In the afternoon, I went to the Fiordland Cinema to see a wordless movie, only music that showed the fiordland from a helicopter. 

Just before 8pm, I got on a ferry that took me across Lake Te Anau to see the glow worm caves.  The caves are about 12,000 years old and is still being carved out by the force of the river ("Tunnel Burn")  that powerfully flows through them. These caves are part of a 6.7 km four-level limestone labyrinth. 

postcard photo

Glowworms 'fish' for food by dangling as many as 70 "fishing lines" which are 20-150 mm long and covered with thick sticky droplets of mucus.  The glowworm's light is produced as a by-product of excretion. 

Friday 
Got up early for my 7 am pick up to take me to Milford Sound for my day of kayaking  Then went and picked up a couple from Netherlands and an adult family from France. It was a very foggy and rainy morning  Then we had a problem...... The road to Milford sound was closed due the rain and the rain has been causing the rock in the mountain just past the tunnel to slide down, thus the closure of the road. So we all had a few choices of what to do and we were all able to postpone our adventure until tomorrow. And therefore I didn't really do much today.  Walked around town and then I did go see Skyfall in the 52 seater movie theatre in town.