I really didn't want to get out of bed this morning, it was -6 degrees outside! Chris the weirdo didn't think it was that cold and happily went to the office at 8am in his shorts and vest to see if the road had opened up, it hadn't! I was actually relieved when he came back and told me because it meant I could jump straight back into my nice warm snugly bed! A little later Chris checked for another update but it was still closed and would be all day. 

We had a look at some flyers to see what else we could do in Te-Anau, there wasn't much other than a trip to a glow worm cave. Neither of us have seen glow worms before and we were planning on going to the Watimo Caves in Taupa in the north island, but seeing as we had nothing else to do we decided to book the next trip at 2pm today.

So until then we chilled out, cooked some lunch then walked down to the office at the other end of town at 1:30pm, we bought our tickets and boarded the boat. It took thirty minutes to get to the caves and the scenary we passed, like everywhere else, was beautiful. It was a really sunny day, the white snowy capped mountains reflected on the calm lake like a mirror. We passed in between a few forested islands and then finally arrived at the caves which were hidden away in the forest, the only clue to them being there was a small stream running into the lake. 

Everyone got off the boat then went into a small building for a quick briefing. We weren't told much, only to keep silent once we were in the glow worm grotto, as they called it, otherwise the glow worms would stop glowing! They are very sensitive to light too so no one was allowed to take photos. The guide asked everyone to get into groups as only a small amount of people were allowed into the caves at a time. We decided to go in one of the first groups so we could get free tea and coffee afterwards to warm up rather than before. We also wanted to go before the group of chinese people, I'd be very surprised if they restrained themselves from taking photos, plus they had two noisy kids with them. 

We were given a small map and information leaflet on each section of the cave. We walked into the entrance which was really low, we had to crouch down to get in, Chris was basically crawling in! It was cool in there and dark, low lights showed the way as we walked deeper into the cave. At first the cave was low but then it quickly opened up into the expansive Cathedral, twenty meters high! At the far end of the Cathedral there was a waterfall, our guide let us drink some of the water that was gushing out. There were also fossilised shell fragments and marine skeletons in the limestone walls. These dated back millions of years ago when the limestone was formed. Passed the water fall there was a whirl pool with foam floating above it, the foam meant that the water was mildly acidic, which kinda made me wish I hadn't drunk any of it then. We were reassured it was harmless to us though, but over time the acid and the rushing of the water was slowly dissolving the rock away, creating more passages. 

After a couple more minutes walking deeper into the caves our guide turned and signalled for us all to be silent, we were about to enter the glow worm grotto. A dam had been created and a small boat big enough to fit only seven people in was waiting for us. We all climbed into the boat and took our seats then our guide began to gently steer us through the cave which was now pitch back, I don't know how he knew where he was going, I had my eyes wide open but I couldn't see anything! It was silent, it was hard to believe that there was a very loud river just a few meters away. Suddenly I could see tiny dots of greenly blue lights appear. They shone brighter as we got closer. Groups of hundreds of tiny lights were glowing above our heads, I wanted to speak to Chris to tell him how excited I was but I couldn't and I knew he wanted to speak to me too! He must of thought I couldn't see what he was seeing because he grabbed my hand and pointed it in the direction of the lights, poking me in the eye in the process. Our guide slowly spun the boat around in circles so we each got a turn to be directly under the glow worms, we could see why it was called a grotto, it was like looking up on a bright starry night. We could see a slight reflection of the glowing lights in the water, it was very pretty. After a few more spins our guide started to take us back, me and Chris played a few games where we had to guess what the other one was writing on our hands until we could see again. As soon as we were allowed to talk Chris told me he hit his head on a rock when we were turning around in the cave. He also said it was frustrating not being able to talk or point at stuff! I have to admit it was very hard to keep silent for so long. By now we were both cold so when we got back to the building we went straight for a couple of hot coffees each.

Once the other groups had come back from the caves we were all able to board the boat and arrived back in town at 4:30pm. Chris didn't want to drive so we decided to stay again and have a movie night while we ate our dinner. We made cheesy tuna pasta bake, it probably had a million calories in it but oh my god it was so nice! We will definitely be making it again. 

Milford sound was still closed when we last checked but could possibly open in the morning, if not we will leave Te-Anau and drive to our next destination, Queenstown, the place I have been dreading for a year now.