Te Anau

We are near to completing our loop of the south island, we drove west out of Invercagil along the shore until we saw the mountains again and then kept them on our left as we headed north, back inland up to the lakeside town of Te Anau.

The southern coastline has lots of cute little beaches and bluffs that are easily accessible, our first stop of the day was at Howells Point Reserve, a little rocky outcrop with a view over to Stewart Island, to our surprise a small pod of dolphins were playing in the waves just off shore so we sat and watched them for quite a while. Just along the coast we found our next stop, Gemstone Beach, so called for the numerous gems that can be found here. Those that are worth any money have already been found but we did gather up a bunch of interesting colourful stones that we liked. A few people were panning for gold and had some luck, but only small flakes.

Onwards to the town of Te Anau, it is quite touristy here, at least compared to where we have been the last few days. A lot of people use it as a jumping off point to explore the Fjordland region or do some of the excellent multi day walks that start close by.

For us the main attraction is the Glow Worm Caves. Glow worms are exclusive to New Zealand and Australia, and the species found here is native and only lives in a few locations. They live in dark humid places and like a constant temperature so caves and dells are where you find them most. Their life cycle is similar to that of a moth or butterfly, when they hatch they survive as a larvae for 6-10 months until they wrap up in a cocoon. They burst out as a fully formed fungus knat and live about a week, copulating as much as possible during that time. It's during the larvae stage that they glow, lighting up their rear end to attract small bugs and insects into their web like fishing lines they use to trap their prey. We walked into a cave and then hopped on a boat to be pulled around their little home in the pitch black, it was incredible to see how numerous they were and just how much light they gave off for such little creatures. Unfortunately we weren't able to take any pictures inside the cave but we have added a view from the tour website to give you an idea of what we could see.

As we were not prepared for a multiday hike, and also you need to book in advance to stay in the huts, we settled for a shorter walk along the lake. On the way we stopped at a bird sanctuary with very little birds. The stars are the Tekahe they are a flightless bird which we talked about in our post on Wellington. This bird sanctuary has a pair that breeds a lot of baby that then go into the wild. Most of the birds there were found hurt or were pets that turned out aggressive. Continuing on the walk we started into the forest bordering the lake so it is quite cool. We hear, as usual, a lot of different bird and we even thought we heard a kiwi...but it may have been totally something else as kiwis are nocturnal 😆

Finally we arrive to our picnic spot, dock bay. A very calm beach with actual sand instead of stones. The water is very very cold but Armelle dareed to go in for a little dip with the ducks passing by. We stayed there a few hours, reading and listening to the sound of the birds. That is the beauty of New Zealand, you can find beautiful natural spots and be almost on your own!Read more