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GLOW WORM caves
Te ANAU, new zealand
We made the walk into Te Anu centre from the holiday park, reflecting that picking the location based on the start/end of the Kepler Track, and not on the subsequent 4 days was not our smartest decision (although it was still a nice place to stay). No matter though, because today was going to be a chill day!
We booked onto the glowworm ferry and tour, and after quickly getting the first breakfast pie of New Zealand (a succulent venison and whiskey from “Miles Better Pies”, more came in the following days), we were away!
Unfortunately, due to pictures not being allowed in the caves, this page is a bit text-heavy…sorry!
Glow Worm tour
The tour wasn’t the cheapest, but the ferry across the lake gives you an opportunity to see some of the mountains closer up if you haven’t been out on any of the walks, and let you see a different perspective if you have. The tour guide gave a pretty funny talk too!
The group was split up at the centre the other side of the lake, with Jas and I on the “coffee and documentary section” first, along with a potter around the museum.
The tour was good, with a lot of information, a bit of ducking, and a huge amount of glowworms!
At the deepest point in the cave, we embarked on a small steel boat, which was then pulled through the cave by our guide as we did past the glowworms in the pitch black. Given how small their lights are, and the darkness, it looks like they’re stars in sky millions of miles away, rather than 1m from your face.
The access into the caves, and the info from the guides was fantastic, but part of being a big group did slightly take away from the wonder of it all. We found out later that there are lots of places where you can see glowworms in the wild (and for free), so while it was cool to do, I’d only recommend taking a tour if you’re short of time, will struggle to access some of the spots in the wild, or have some spare cash to burn.
Back on shore, we followed the sound of revving engines (and some wellplaced signs) to the Te Anau motor show, which was a real change of scene from the tranquility of the cave an hour before. Entertainment featured the fire crew demonstrating how to cut someone out of a car, and what seemed to be a “rev-off” between 2 rival cars. Fortunately, we found our niche admiring some restored defenders, and Jas managed to get some Santa earrings from the little stalls.
We popped over to the Sandfly Cafe for an afternoon snack (highly recommended), before a BBQ back at the holiday park.
Tucking in at the Sandfly Cafe
Walking back along Lake Te Anau
Getting the campsite BBQ going