Eels, Glow Worms and Avatar

Leaving Franz Josef, we continued south along the west coast, pedaling 39 miles on a fairly level road, passing dairy farms with dramatic views of the mountains all around us. The threatening weather only brought a brief sprinkle on us. Later in the ride we came to more dense rainforest terrain, arriving at a salmon farm for lunch.

Back in the van we drove about 40 minutes to Wilderness Lodge Lake Moeraki. Our lodge hosts -- Anne Saunders and Gerry McSweeney -- were instrumental in preserving these ancient forest surroundings from development, eventually earning it UNESCO World Heritage status. Soon after arrival, we joined a guided walk through the rainforest of 1000-year-old Rimu trees, tree ferns, silver beech and others native to the west coast of the south island. James Cameron liked one of these trees so much he had it digitized for the movie, Avatar.

Our hosts encouraged us to pet the longfin eels, which they attracted near the shore by pouring blood into the water (from raw meat). We met 'Margaret,' who is about 5 feet long, and estimated to be over 50 years old. These eels can live to be over 100 and weigh more than 50 pounds. They are kind of doughy to the touch, but very slippery!!

After dark, Gerry walked us down the road to view thousands of glow-worms in the steep hillside along the road. Glow-worms are the larvae of any of four types of beetles--among them, the firefly. They are 1-2 centimeters long and only the width of 2 human hairs, growing to 5 hairs before they form a cocoon in preparation for their 2 days as adults before they mate, lay eggs and die. Gerry is quite a character, and very knowledgeable -- it was a magical evening!Read more