Milford Sound & The Glow Worm Caves

Today we were up bright & early for the 7:30 pickup for the tour from Te Anau to Milford Sound. This was another day of making our way through some very unusual topography that pictures really could not accurately depict what we were seeing. The first part of the ride took us through some of the vast expanse of grazing fields for sheep & cattle that seems to be never ending here in this part of New Zealand. Our first stop was at an area called Mirror Lakes, which is aptly named, as when you look at the water it reflects the mountains that rise above it. It's hard to tell where the land meets the water when the water is completely still.

Once past here, we starting heading up the mountain into some incredible fiordland. This entire area was formed by glaciers many years ago and there are many U-shaped divides between the steep mountains that seem to rise up right out of the water. This area also gets about 210 days of rain per year, so there are rivers, snow-capped peaks, & waterfalls everywhere to be seen. We managed to hit a day when it was not raining, but that may not have been a good thing since the driver told us that the rivers & falls are so much more impressive right after a good rain.

At one point, we had to go through a pretty long one-way tunnel (Homer Tunnel), that I wasn't sure that the bus was going to fit through. Once out the other side, we pulled over to take a few photos. There we saw a native New Zealand bird called a Kea, a member of the parrot family. Our driver told us that "it has been found that the Kea is one of the most intelligent species of birds.............and that's why you don't find it in Australia." I guess the Kiwi vs. Aussie rivalry is still alive & well.

We made it down to the Milford Sound area where we caught a boat for about a 2 hour cruise around the Sound. Milford Sound is surrounded by steep, snow-capped mountain peaks littered with both small & large waterfalls which create an incredible sight when you are out on the water. It's almost impossible to see all the way to the top of the peaks as you get close to the shore. The boat managed to pull in quite close to some waterfalls, close enough to scatter some of the people on the lower deck in order to avoid getting drenched.

After the cruise was over, we started the trek back to Te Anau with a few more stops on the way. One of then was along the Hollyford River, where we drank some of the water (at least I did anyway....too many potential microorganisms for Judy), saw the rushing river, and also saw a small waterfall that had a pool at the bottom that you could see to the bottom because the water was so clear & clean.

We got back to Te Anau around 3:45, bought some stuff for dinner & breakfast the next morning, did some laundry, and got ready to head out for a 7:00 pm cruise & tour to the glow worm caves on Lake Te Anau. I was concerned the night before about this one because it was really cold & windy and I froze my ass off just walking the 2 blocks to the restaurant for dinner. However, by the late afternoon the weather heated up considerably and the wind completely died down, leaving the lake looking like a sheet of glass. When we were on the boat headed out to the glow worm caves, we took some pictures where, again, you could hardly tell where the water met the land. You could even see the mirror image of the clouds in the water.

The caves where the glow worms are located were cut out of the rock by rushing water over many years. We had to walk upstream in these caves about 300 yards, some of which we had to bend over to avoid hitting our heads on the cave ceiling. We were walking on a constructed metal walkway above the rushing water until we arrived at the boat landing. At this point, we got in a 12 person boat and the guide pulled us through the pitch black cave in complete silence so that we could see the glow worms hanging from the cave ceiling. Not suggested for those who are claustrophobic or scared of the dark. It was pretty amazing though. Unfortunately, no cameras are allowed in the caves as the glow worms react to light & noise, so no pictures to show. Take our word, it was pretty cool. On the way back, we got some pretty incredible colors in the sky as the sun went down. When it got completely dark, the moon came up and you could only see a sliver of light. However, you could also see the entire outline of the moon's dark side too. It was almost as if we were seeing an eclipse. Unfortunately, our picture of that didn't come out too well, but if you look closely, you can kind of get the idea.