Te Anau to Queenstown

Saturday....19 February....leaving beautiful Te Anau in the early morning to cruise across the lake for an underground exploration.  "Glow little glow worm....glimmer....glimmer...."  a song way back when...little did I know there was such a thing...glow worms?  Well today it was to become a reality....thousands of these little worms inside a cave.

The cave is located on the western shores of the lake and a four level limestone labyrinth known as Aurora Caves.  It is about 12,000 years old....but only open to viewing since about 1948.  It is unlike many dry cave systems since it is still increasing in size.  The river that flows through the caves is midly acidic and helps the water to disolve the rock and create passages.

I was not able to provide and pictures inside the cave because it is prohibited....however here is the entrance...

As I entered I had to huch over since the entrance was very low....but then it opened to a huge area...called the Cathedral...it is 20Meters high.  There is a huge waterfall at the far end of this Cathedral and a whirlpool and natural sandstone bridge....past this is the glowworm grotto....we board a small boat and are guided in complete darkness in a circular pattern thru the cave....above us are thousands of tiny lights shimmering....glow worms!!!

The glowworms feed off of insects that are attracted to the light they emit.  and once trapped by the fishing lines dangled by the worms....these lines are sticky with doplets of mucus....okay...okay I know....gross....

Okay....as we leave the caves....I have to show this....the temperature often fluctuates...so the coach windows steam up....now I took this from my seat....how does the driver see???

and this is what it looked like in less than 30 seconds....

Okay...moving right along.....one of the major agricultural exports in New Zealand is bambi....yes deer.  Germany is one of the largest importers of venison and there are deer farms galore....here is a look at one...

As we progress North toward Queenstown the lakes are plentiful.....a sample would be this photo below...

.....and soon we approach Lake Wakatipu in Queenstown and are treated to some of the sailboats participating in a day of racing....

Before we head to our hotel it is time to take some of the more adventurous people on the tour (again the monkey is telling me NO....NO....NO).  This adventure will be a jet boat ride on a shotover jet boat via narrow canyons and then out to the lake doing 360 degree spins!!!

That second picture is the narrow canyon for the start of the jet ride....YIKES!!!

Now to my room for the next couple days....this is a beautiful relief and a picturesque setting.....

Time to relax before I head to an evening cruise and dinner at a country farm.