Day 24: Manapouri to Te Anau

Journal for 2014-11-12 | Published on 2014-11-13 01:03:07

Started off with a cold morning, around 5C when we left at 8am. We knew it was a short ride from Manapouri to Te Anau but didn’t want to run into any surprises. We whisked through the first 10km and Pam saw a sign which led to an access point for the Kepler Track which had a large pedestrian suspension bridge so we detoured to that.

It was pretty neat to walk out on the long wood/steel cable bridge and see the clear water running beneath us. After pausing for a snack we headed back on our way with temperatures up to 13C. The ride remained unremarkable and before we knew it we were in Te Anau.

We saw a sign for a wildlife area and paused to check it out. Turns out that they were feeding the various birds at the time and we got a guided tour and got to see a few of New Zealand’s rare native birds. The guide was a Department of Conservation ranger and was very knowledgeable. We even got to step inside a couple enclosures to see the birds, and Pam fed a paradise duck from her hand.

After that the temperature dropped pretty quickly back down to 8C and we were cold. We rode around deciding on which expensive Holiday Park to stay it in town. This is a very popular tourist destination and it shows in the prices. Finally we settled down at the “Top 10 Holiday Park,” which is very nice. During the next hour there was hail, rain, sun, heavy gusts of wind, rain, sideways rain, sun, clouds.

After lunch, PB&J, we went to get on the boat for our tour of the Te Anau Glowworm Caves. The boat ride was very nice and then we arrived at the entrance to the Aurora Tunnel System. Consisting of 7km of tunnels we hung out in the visitor center for little bit learning about the glowworms and then got to walk in to the caves for a little bit seeing the clear stream water of Tunnel Burn running through the tunnel. There were little rapids and water falls and even some glow worms hanging from the ceiling of the tunnel.

Each glow worm produces a little speck of light from its tail portion and is like a little prick of bluish glow in the dark tunnel. The bugs from the stream are attracted to the light and run in to little sticky strings produced by the glowworms and then get eaten up. Anyways at the end of the metal scaffolding in the tunnels we boarded a boat and were taken into a completely dark small cave with many glowworms.

It was very incredible to be floating in this cave system in pitch black and having a hundred or so little pinpricks of blue light shining off the ceiling. There was one particular patch that they took us right next to with 30-50 glowworms in a small grouping that was bright enough you could see the person next to you. Very neat, hard to describe experience. This variety of glowworms is only found in this cave system and immediately surrounding area in New Zealand.

Leaving the caves we had another boat ride back to Te Anau where Pam and I stopped at a local meat pie store called “Miles Better Pies.” We each enjoyed a very tasty pie and then headed to the cinema which shows a video highlighting the Fiordlands National Park. It was a beautiful display of the many parts of Fiordlands which can only be seen by helicopter in different seasons.

Another meat pie and a sweet pie later we are winding down for the evening. Another touristy day tomorrow and then back to pedaling. One thing is for sure, being a tourist is a lot more expensive than pealing around the countryside, sheesh.

Distance: 27.9km

Time: 1:52

Avg: 14.96kmh

Max 39.2kmh

Climb: 127m