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Next up, Te Anau and Milford Sound. Te Anau was basically a stopping place on our way over to Milford Sound so we didn't really know too much about what was there. It was a bit of a drive as is on the west of the South Island (although long journeys are now more like 4 or 5 hours rather than 14 or 15 in Oz!) It is a pretty sweet little town, consisting of one street with a bank, supermarket and a few restaurants... not exactly a large town then. It sits next to Lake Te Anau which is an emourmous expanse of water (look how much geography Grant has taught me), about 300-400 metres deep making it the second biggest and deepest lake in NZ... jeez.
We took a trip out on the lake (in a boat) to get over to some caves as we had heard there were some larve with the sun shining out of their behinds... yes, glowworms! The trip over the lake was pretty cool as the boat went all through the Fiordland which is like huge bits of mountain sticking out of the lake (ah maybe the geography isn't coming on as well as I thought). Over at the caves we were told that we had to be extremely quiet and no photos (selective hearing for the second point) so we ducked through the tiny shelves of rock into the darkness and were greeted with the sight of a huge river and waterfalls cascading through the caves - pretty spectacular sight. We trekked through for a good 20 mins before coming to a teeny tiny boat where we all squeezed in and were pushed away into absolute darkness, you couldn't even see your hand right in front of your face. As the boat lazily moved around the water and our eyes adjusted we gradually started to notice the millions of twinkling lights above us and next to us - glowworms! In the absolute silence and blackness it was quite mesmerising as they really look like they are twinkling. This is because they are squirming about however... bit gross when you think of it like that actually... but really cool and quite a different experience. After trekking back through the cave we decided to explore the surrounding area a bit and took a nature walk (just to confirm this was not actually a Saga organised trip) and headed into the woods. This is where it got properly Lord of the Ringsy and Grant was giddy imagining the tree people and hobbits and stuff... que him grabbing the camera and laying on the ground trying to capture the mossy atmosphere a la Peter Jackson - brilliant.
So following the glowworms of Te Anau we set off to Milford Sound which is like one of the top 3 things to see in NZ. It was a pretty cool drive there through mountains, past waterfalls and round snakey cliffside roads. We were booked onto a cruise which is the only way to get out onto the water and see it all. Milford Sound is a Fiord (not a Sound) which means it was created by (let me just ask Grant...) glaciers millions of years ago carving out the land and creating huge sheer cliffs that rise vertically from the ocean. The scenery was just breathtaking as we were lucky enough to have the most perfect clear sunny day. The size of the cliff faces are overwhelming and we were told that some of the sections are twice the size of the Empire State Building - pretty big when you are in a tiny boat right at the bottom. There are thousands of waterfalls cascading all down the cliffs, which as the sun was shining so brightly created loads of rainbows as we sailed by. At one point the boat was driven right up to one waterfall meaning the rainbow was so close you could almost touch it - wierd!
Now obviously a trip for us anywhere wouldn't be complete without a strong wildlife element and this trip definately didn't disappoint. First off we saw lots of sealions sunning themselves on the rocks and diving into the water catching fish. Then one of the coolest things we have seen, bottlenose dolphins! Now there wasn't just a quick glimpse of these amazing creatures, our boat was literally surrounded by about 30 of them! They were jumping out of the water and dancing around the boat as if they were putting on a show just for us. The guide said we were extremely lucky as although many of them live around the area, it is quite rare to see them this time of year and even rarer to see so many. As the boat started up the whole pod then proceeded so swim along with the boat, speeding through the water like darts and leaping out of the water in some kind of hypnotic fashion every 3 or 4 seconds (just like that bit in Titanic..!) They stayed with us for a good 15 minutes as we sped along and we did manage to get a bit of video of them so will try to upload that onto here.
Anyway, with like the biggest grins ever we took off to the open road again, destination -the adventure capital of NZ and maybe the world... Queenstown.
Linz x
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